I read this novel early August 2024. It is a paperback, 307 pages, published in 2019. The writing is good and clkear.
It is a very delightful, heart warming tale about an elderly blind woman Mildred Guterman, who lives alone and has no family in an apartment building. In the same building Raymond Jaffee, a teenage boy who is totally alone in the his mother's new family. One day as Mildred calls ouit from her apartment, "Have you seen Luis Velez?" Raymond stops and there begins unlikely friendship that will change and enhance both their lives. This novel reflects the wisdom of the parable of doing something to help others and thereby helping yourself beyond expectations. Mildred had help from Luis who has vanished and she has no way of contacting him. She does not like to go out on the streets alone with her white cane so Raymond begins to accompany her to the bank, to errands. Ultimately Raymond begins a quest to search for this missing Luis, using only the phone book which has many by that name.,
Pg 78-79: "Because I have lived 92 years, Raymond, and if there's one thing I can tell you, it's that we are never as unique as we think we are. We are all people. Sure, some things will be different from one person to the next. Some people have more of those feelings than others. Some have too much, and it causes all manner of havoc. Some have none at all.
But I can tell you this as a human being whose had a lot of experience being one: "If you're feeling something other people in other places are feeling it too.""Ultimately he finds Luis' young pregnant widow Isabel and their children. Raymond learns Luis was murdered and the trial is coming up. He brings her to meet Mildred so she will have resolution knowing what happened to Luis and that he did not abandon her. Isabel had no way to contact her and was concerned too despite all her problems.
This excerpt pg 157, on living after loss and a long life are wisdom from Mildred:
This is a 5 ***** read
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