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Seventy-seven year old Essie Mae Laveau Jenkins makes sweetgrass baskets on the side of Highway 17. She constantly talks to her deceased husband, Daddy Jim. She starts making what she calls love baskets. She takes a piece of hair from each person in the couple she wants to make and places in the bottom of the basket as she starts the weave. She has next to no relationship with her daughter, Henrietta, but has a wonderful one with Retta’s son EJ. Nearing her seventy-eighth birthday, and getting ready to lose her home due to owing years of back taxes, Essie doesn’t worry but just takes it a day at a time.
Essie is on her way to be with the Lord and even gets to the pearly gates and sees her loved ones. When she realizes her passing has caused problems in the family left behind that only she can correct.
This book truly put you in the setting. You felt as if you could smell the sweetgrass as Essie was making the baskets. It also impressed that important message that none of us know when our time is and we should make sure we are right not only with the Lord but our families.
Reviewed by Kristy Pelletier
for The Road to Romance
April 11, 2007
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