When The Other Shoe Falls

When the Other Shoe Falls is an accounting of the life of a woman from early childhood in the 60's through to the present day. It deals briefly with her childhood and progresses quickly to her youth where she experiences her first sexual encounter. This is brought to an end with the suicide of her first love. Thus, begins the first rebuilding of her life after that loss, with finishing college and getting married to a man she discovers she really doesn't know as well as she thought she did. She must deal with a compulsive gambler and cheat. He almost loses their home to gambling. During this time, they have a child who is diagnosed with cerebral palsy, after years of trying to conceive with the help of fertility drugs.

Next, the reader is taken through that portion of her life where she is yet again rebuilding after a failed marriage. During this time she takes over raising her estranged husband's problem ridden teenaged daughter without his help. The teen has a penchant toward abusing the two children left in her care as well as a slightly incestuous inclination toward her father, of which he is never aware.

Our protagonist must go forward after each "shoe falls." She opens her home to the family, including ex-wife and children of her boyfriend, after their house burns to the ground. It is in this period that she explores the afterlife and psychic phenomenon, both because she "hears voices," and because she must deal with the death of her father.

Later she must deal with the teenage pregnancy of her boyfriend's daughter and the drug use of his son; and, how those events could shape the lives of her own two children who are just entering their teen years.

The conclusion brings the reader to current time, where things seem to finally be getting on track. Her life is, for the time being, in order.

When the Other Shoe Falls is written with humor about a life that might otherwise be considered a tragedy. It is upbeat and positive even though the other shoe is always poised to fall.

Maureen Gavin is a 1974 graduate of Rutgers University. There she majored in English with a minor in journalism. Her writing career got sidetracked for many years while she lived her life, and inadvertently compiled material for her first book.

While Ms. Gavin raised her children and held jobs as menial as delivering newspapers at four o'clock in the morning, and as heady as owning and operating her own corporation, she never lost sight of the book she would put down on paper one day. She filled the gaps by writing a newsletter for a volunteer organization and faithfully kept her journal on an almost daily basis.

Ambitious and goal oriented, Ms. Gavin pursued every aspiration with a positive outlook. Every time she was knocked down, she came back up, stronger for the experience.

Getting married on the thirteenth would have set off alarms with a superstitious person. Neither Joe nor I were; perhaps we should have been.

On our wedding day, I got my period -- so much for the passion of a wedding night. So, when we got to our hotel after the reception, we sat on the bed and opened cards to see how much loot was in them. We had gotten over $1000. That was quite a bit in 1974 for a couple who were starting out with very little.

The next morning, we left for our honeymoon cruise. We flew to Miami and boarded the ship to sail to St. Thomas, Nassau, and San Juan.

Little did I know that when a cruise ship leaves port, the casino opens. Joe found that out right away. He went to the casino and proceeded to lose all of the money we had amassed from the wedding. He didn't bother to tell me this, and it never occurred to me to ask how much he'd lost because he had said, "I only lost a little," when he came back to the stateroom.

Since all expenses are taken care of on a cruise ship, there was no need for me to notice that we had no money. However, when we reached San Juan, Joe and I got off the ship and went shopping. I immediately took a liking to an emerald pinky ring I saw in the window of a small store. We went in to look closer.

Joe said, "Why don't you just write a check for it and we'll save our cash."

I laughed, "Now that's really stupid. We have over a thousand dollars. Why would I write a check?"

He sheepishly said, "I lost all the money on the first night. You'll have to write a check if you want the ring."

I was livid and we left the store without the ring. Once we got on the street, I started to cry. I wasn't hurt, but I was furious. Tears were streaming from my eyes because I felt completely frustrated, and I could do nothing about the situation. I said, through clenched teeth, "You lost all of our money on the first night, and you wait until we're in a store to tell me? How could you?"

The signs of a problem marriage showed themselves right away, but I refused to think that his habit would become a problem. When we docked a week later and flew home, all we had

for cab fare from the airport was the fifteen dollars I had in my wallet.