THE SECRET WOMEN

A newfound friendship galvanizes three women into exploring their late mothers’ pasts.

Elise Armstrong is just “not feelin’ Namaste” at her weekly yoga class when her less than enthusiastic performance catches the attention of her classmates Carmen Bradshaw and DeeDee Davis, who also seem to be struggling with finding their Zen. When they decide to grab dinner at a Mexican restaurant after class, they discover that all three are grappling with the grief left in the wakes of their mothers’ deaths—Elise’s mother, Marie Wade; Carmen’s mother, Joan Bradshaw; and DeeDee’s mother, Laura O’Neill. All of the women are still in the process of going through their mothers' possessions, and each is hesitant to dive into the past for varying reasons. Marie was a collector—of African masks, 10 sets of china, five distinct collections of jewelry—and Elise is overwhelmed with the prospect of picking through it all. Laura struggled with bipolar disorder throughout DeeDee’s childhood, and DeeDee is not only dealing with the fear that her free-spirited daughter, Frances, has inherited her grandmother’s mental illness, but she is loath to unearth more of Laura’s inner turmoil. Joan was a preacher’s wife who lived a quiet life, and Carmen doesn’t imagine she’ll find any evidence to the contrary in her mother’s old things. But when Elise, DeeDee, and Carmen agree to help each other wade through these items, they grow closer to each other and to the women their mothers really were. Flashback chapters from Joan’s perspective prior to Carmen’s birth as well as diary entries written by Laura during DeeDee’s adolescence give further insight into the ways each mother’s experience intersects and contrasts with those of her daughter in the present day.

A moving examination of the complexities of motherhood and the strength of female friendship.