A HUNDRED SMALL LESSONS by Ashley Hay

A HUNDRED SMALL LESSONS by Ashley Hay is an introspective and well-written, but at times melancholy story. Its focus is on two women and the Brisbane, Australia house in which they lived. One is Elsie Gormley, now elderly and forced to leave the home where she and husband Clem raised two children, Donny and Elaine (twins already in their 70’s). The other woman is named Lucy Kiss; she, husband Ben Carter, and their very young son Tom are the new owner occupants.

I think that more mature readers will readily emphasize with both women.  Lucy is often lonely, left to care for a young child and give up some of her former self.  She imagines Elsie visiting as a friendly presence. And Elsie, experiencing dementia, is having trouble letting go of her home, of her married life (even though Clem has been dead for years) and of her role as a mother. Thus, parts of the story are told in vivid flashbacks.  Both struggle with change and a revised self-image:
“Standing at the kitchen sink, she saw a line of Lucys at a line of sinks, each drinking a tall glass of water.  She saw rainbows darting out from the prism of each, reflecting and refracting all those other versions of herself.”  and
“Who would she be now, she wondered, without him? Who was Elsie Gormley if Clem Gormley’s idea of her was no longer alive?”

There’s a bit of mystery here – will the two ever truly meet?  What advice and solace would they offer each other? What insights from the past and courage for the future? Perhaps they would realize the value in this advice: “If you are having a bad day … take a moment and flick through some photographs. You never take photos of your bad moments – so when you flick through some of the happy things, you let yourself remember there'll be other happy times.”