We Are All Welcome Here

We Are All Welcome Here by Elizabeth Berg

Oh, we have to love us some Elizabeth Berg!  Her characterization never disappoints. One of the reasons I read, as I've said many times before, is because people are fascinating.

Berg takes the idea of a woman being paralyzed by polio, abandoned by her husband, and raising her daughter alone and makes it a study of the human will to not just survive, but overcome and thrive.  I was captivated by Paige's attitude after surviving polio:

"Anyway, what I believe is that what happened to me, revealed me. . .it made me know how I really feel about important things.  I mean, whatever the diagnosis is, isn't the issue.  The issue is the way the person who has it looks at it. Understand? I know that polio made me be my best self.  It's funny, it seems like people need obstacles to bring out their finest qualities" (143).

Diana, the daughter who grows up taking care of her mother as her mother teaches her about life, learns many lessons in this "coming of age" story.  Interestingly, the story is set during the Civil Rights movement and Diana comes to realize that her Black caregiver and other Black people are also limited by their circumstances.

"We're all trapped,' my mother said.  'We're all trapped in a body with limitations, even the most able-bodied among us! And we're all guided by minds with limitations of their own.  You want to know my philosophy?  It's this:  Our job, regardless of our bodily circumstances, is to rise above what holds us down, and to help others do the same" (158).

I liked this story because it made me wonder how I would respond to a similar situation (could I be so positive?!) and it made me appreciate the way I am able to move about freely, doing whatever I want without being dependent on others.  It made me better appreciate the ways I can interact with my children.  As a disclaimer, it did have a little more immorality than Berg usually does, but it's not explicit.