Delia's been through it in the last few years and that was before pandemic. First, her beloved husband of decades, Jerry, died of cancer. Then she wrote an NYT article about trying to cancel his phone service and how excruciating that was. That led to a guy she briefly dated when she was young (and didn't remember) writing to her, and they quickly fall in love. And then Delia comes down with the same cancer that killed her sister Nora, years later. Peter and Delia quickly get married, he moves in, and she goes through all kinds of medical treatments to get rid of it, including having a stem cell treatment that makes her wish she was dead. But she survived, got back to writing again, and she's still happily married. The book ends right before the pandemic starts--I did wonder if she was immediately forced to go back indoors and avoid everyone and everything for the rest of her life again, but that's not covered.
The medical stuff is hard going. Even though Delia's not the type to want gory medical details, there's enough recounted by others to make you shudder. (And I could have used a wee bit more romance? Yeah, yeah, I know, there's no time....) So if that's a trigger for you right now, maybe skip this for awhile. But I'm very glad she found love again and just in the nick of time.
Three and a half stars.
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