Eve Emily Hanson's story is set in the surrounds of beautiful Cape Town, in apartheid-era South Africa. She shares this journey with her reader.
Her family is Cape Coloured. Dysfunctional. She longs to grow up in a stable home with both her parents.... take root. Just like her peers. Instead, her address and caregivers change like the seasons. Plucky Eve builds a 'love box' to store happier memories shared with her parents. When emotional neglect overwhelms her, this is where she finds comfort.
Eve falls in love with Michael J. Moore. Believing she has found a soulmate, one who will fill the void left by her father's continued absence, and that her nomadic lifestyle will finally come to an end, she marries him. For many years their marriage is all he promised it would be and they are blessed with twin sons.
Then, Mike takes to drinking. Unbeknownst to him, a distraught Eve joins Al-Anon. Mike is livid when she tells all. He drives (one time too many) under the influence the next day. Crashes his vehicle. Dies.
With the help of her best friend Grace and Jonathan, an Al-Anon member, Helping Hands-a project to assist women in abusive relationships-comes into being. Fate has not dealt Eve its last blow. Mike (Eve's then fiancé) fathered a child while on a brief work assignment in Canada. News of his illegitimate sixteen-year-old daughter comes to light posthumously.
Ever the optimist, she steadfastly believes there must be life after death, disillusion, and despair!
