I’ll Be Seeing You by Joanne Kukanza Easley
I’ll Be Seeing You by Joanne Kukanza Easley (Red Boots Press)
A saga spanning five decades, I’ll Be Seeing You, explores the traumas of war and one woman’s life, with and without alcohol to numb the pain.
Lauren Eaton is discovered by a modeling scout at the 1940 Fort Worth Stock Show Parade, and she leaves her bucolic ranch life to move to Manhattan for a glamorous career. She becomes pregnant by a Frenchman, who is unaware of her condition and returns to France to fight in the Resistance. Broken-hearted, she gives up the baby for adoption and later marries a man who enlists in WW II and is killed in battle, which leads her to a downward spiral into alcoholism and promiscuity. By twenty-four, she’s been widowed and divorced and has developed a pattern of fleeing her problems by changing locations.
After she ends her third marriage to a veteran of the Battle of the Bulge, Lauren’s last escape lands her in Austin, where, after ten chaotic years, she achieves lasting sobriety and starts a successful business, but happiness eludes her.
Fast forward to 1985. With a history of burning bridges and never looking back, Lauren is stunned when Brett, her third husband, resurfaces, wanting to reconcile after thirty-three years. The losses and regrets of the past engulf her. Guilt at the way she treated Brett forces Lauren to seek the counsel of Jane, a long-time friend from AA. In the end, the choice has to be Lauren’s. Can she forgive herself for past mistakes and open her heart again?
