BLESSINGS, By Anna Quindlen

This is the story of Lydia Blessings, a feisty, crabby woman in her 80's who lives in a beautiful estate, which is also called "Blessings". Widowed when she was young, she never remarried. Her only daughter is married, herself 60 years old with no children. Lydia's family is long gone, her only brother dead as well. So she lives alone in her childhood home, with only her memories to keep her company. She's not entirely alone: her daughter visits every so often, she has a housekeeper that comes on a daily basis, and she also has a property caretaker who lives above the garage. The caretaker, Charles "Skip" Cuddy, has his own story - he's an ex-con, and he had a miserable upbringing. But even though he has a shady past, he's a good, hardworking young man.

The story opens up with a teenage couple dropping off a "package" in the middle of the night at Skip's door. When Skip finds it, he realizes that someone has abandoned a baby there. He tries to keep it a secret, but soon Mrs. Blessing finds out and surprises him by helping him keep his secret. The baby, who he names "Faith", brings a lot of joy and laughter to Skip and Lydia. Faith gives Lydia a way to remember her youth, and she gives Skip a feeling of finally having family to love. Together they plot to keep this baby a secret until they can figure out how to keep her permanently. But then a situation one night turns Skip and Lydia against each other, and soon after that, the birth mother appears on the scene.

The story is simple, but it's made interesting by the details of each character's life. We find out the whole truth about Skip's past crime, and we also find out about Lydia's own indiscretions in her youth. Also told are the Blessings family secrets, some which Lydia had known about for years, and some which come to light during the story. In her old age, she looks back and sees things a bit more clearly than when she was a young woman. She also realizes that some things she thought were secrets, were actually known, but just not discussed "in those days".

BLESSINGS was a bit of a slow read. At first I struggled to get into the story. Once I did, I enjoyed it, although it was not quite the page turner I expected. I read a few reviews that complained about "jumping" around in time: Lydia is in the present, then she is in her past, then we're in the present, but a day later. I was sometimes confused by that, but soon got the hang of it. Also, I was able to guess some of the family secrets ahead of time. But still, it was enjoyable. It was a story about family, secrets, and the effects that generations have on each other. The ending was realistic - which unfortunately, made it sad.