Bess Hendrick

Welcoming the Rain Bess Hendrick

Of all the people who move through our lives, the least expected person sometimes plays the most significant part. Raymie Jamieson inhabits her own world, a quiet one of muted colors and shapes distorted by declining eyesight. On a gray September day, an outgoing stranger named Marcie brings a splash of color to that world. Drawn to Marcie's mix of audacity and kindness, Raymie sets aside her normal reserve, and the two become friends. When Raymie accepts an invitation to Marcie's house, their circle widens to include Jack, the affable, slightly damaged college professor who occupies the apartment above the garage. Set in the Pacific Northwest, this delicately crafted novel follows its characters through the 1960s to present day. In the tangle of youthful expectations, triumphs and disappointments, friendships and marriages, there is the story of how they learn to make a life together, defining family in a way that is unique to them alone. Through struggles with love, grief and disability, each is able to find peace with living in a less than perfect world, to welcome the rain in all its forms: loss, adversity, abundance and nourishment.