A DAY LATE AND A DOLLAR SHORT
BY
TERRY MCMILLAM
I know this message may be a Day Late and a Dollar Short, but here it is. Day Late may be Terri’s best book to date. Why? Because she wrote about us, dysfunctional family excluded. We all have mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, children, husbands and best friends. Terri managed to siphoned a piece from life and exhale it into characters whom resembled people we all knew. It was interesting to note that all of the characters were somehow a day late. Why didn’t Viola try to put her family back together before she died? And Cecil could have gotten the Jeri Curl cut off before Clinton was elected. And since he knew that was not his child, why didn’t he just leave Brenda and return to his family. He sure picked a fine time to want to be a father. Had he practiced this new status maybe he would have known about the abuse suffered by his son?
Charlotte wanted to tell her mother how much she loved her, but the last time they talked, Charlotte hung up on the woman who gave her birth. Talk about being a day late. Ask Paris if love can really be found in the bottle of painkillers or a six-figure bank account. Maybe she connected with the landscaper and for the first time did not come up a dollar short. She probably could have brought that car and condo for her parents a long time ago.
I suppose Lewis is getting it together, but I wonder. Don’t you? Will Lewis make it? Will he get over the trauma of his youth? Will he actually use his genius I.Q.? Will he be a father to his son? My answer is no! Oh I don’t doubt that he will try, but he is just a day late. As for Janelle, Don’t you think she has a chance? Being the youngest, she might have more days left.
Sometimes I wish I would take notes on our discussion rather than relying on memory, but then I couldn’t fully listen to the discussion. So my recollection is that we enjoyed the characters of this book so much, we were interested in how authors express their characters to the extent that we feel with them and for them. Terri did this to the max. I can’t wait to see the movie.
A special thanks to the member, who provided the discussion questions about the novel. They helped to direct our comments. I thought the most important question centered on how we could foster, nurture and build upon our own family and friend relationships. Responses to this question evolved around telling those whom you care about how much you love them before it is a day late. Another thought is to wait before acting in order not to be toooo angry. Most said they would never hang up of parents, mother or father. It was also suggested that we nurture the relationship with ourselves. Knowing and being who you are, accepting others comments about us and deciding, on our own, what we want to do with those comments. I loved this part of the discussion. It was Sister to Sister talk. We need more of that.