Last Rights\The Unspoken Years

When she died, Christine O'Gara left behind a fragile, fractured family—estranged, embittered and at odds over custody of her only child. But in time, they'll see that Christine's legacy is strong enough to finally give a young girl the father she deserves.

Cora, Christine's mother—No stranger to loss, she's desperate to do right by her daughter and she'll fight with everything she's got.

Lexie, Christine's daughter—Torn between grief and rage at the thought of living with the man who abandoned them, she's planning revenge.

Alex, Christine's ex-husband—Never truly believed in his own worth…or understood what Christine saw in him. He'd tried to return to her, but he'd been turned away. Only now can he come back and prove Christine right.

We can't choose our family.

We can learn to deserve the love we crave from them.

Lynne Hugo writes in black Wal-Mart Capri sweatpants. They don't start out as Capris, but she routinely shrinks them in the drier by accident. And she always buys black because it doesn't show where she's wiped the chocolate off her hands. Now that her son and daughter are grown, her previous high grade of below average in domestic achievement has dropped somewhat. Rather, less guilty about it now, she loses herself in crafting language, by a window with birdfeeders hanging in the branches of a Chinese elm towering over the house.

When she comes up for air, she hikes by the ponds and along the river in a nearby forest with her beloved chocolate Labrador retriever, Hannah. Her husband — with whom she planted that elm as a bare root sapling — joins them when he can. There's much more on her web site.