Waiting for the Moon is a novel by Kristin Hannah. It kept me guessing. The story begins with a woman attempting suicide by jumping off a cliff. She fails and a fisherman brings her to the closest house which happens to be owned by a doctor.
The doctor has his own story. He was once a successful surgeon but he was also quite the amorous Romeo. Eventually, he was shot by a jealous husband. Interestingly, the tragic event left him with a bizarre "gift" or "curse." Whenever he touched human flesh he felt their emotional pain somehow. It was quite debilitating. He left his medical practice and went to his parental home. His father died when he was a child and his mother was mentally ill. He went home to her thinking that they made quite the pair-- two damaged people. To keep his mother company he opened their home to some other mentally ill people.
When the lady who attempted to commit suicide is brought to Dr. Carrick, he was surprised that when he touched her, he didn't get that shock of psychic insight of emotional trauma, he usually felt upon touching people. He actually thought and planned to cure her and use her to demonstrate his method of treating head injuries. These plans came and went as Selena, that's the name he gave her, got better, or not.
She did get better but she had amnesia. She didn't remember her past. She was healed by not only Dr. Carrick's medical expertise but by the inmates of the house. It was actually a mental asylum. The participants were kind and helpful people. They made me laugh. Sometimes the mentally ill have uncanny insight and express honest opinions that are needed. This house of misfits became a family. Selena, since she had no background damage that she remembered, created a new life for herself that resulted in her being a good, kind, happy, compassionate, optimistic, human being. Her attitude affected everyone in the house, including Dr. Carrick. Not to mention that the two of them, fell in love.
Dr. Carrick and Selena were planning their wedding when Selena's husband showed up.
This was devastating. Her husband was hideously, physically scarred. He also was old enough to be her father. But he carried their wedding picture as proof. It turned out that he married Selena when she was twelve years old to save her from living in the streets. They lived in a Shaker Village. This meant that their life was celibate because men and women live separately.
Selena hated it. That's why she ran away and tried to commit suicide. But she felt duty-bound to go back to the Shakers to obey her lawful husband, no matter how much she loved Dr. Carrick.
That would have been the end of the story except an accident happened. Selena's husband was accidentally shot. The doctor the Shakers used said he was dying. Selena brought him to Dr. Carrick.
Dr. Carrick wrestled with his conscience. If Selena's husband died, then she'd be free to marry. But he was trying to be a good doctor, for Selena. The husband lived. As he recuperated he became very aware that his wife, Selena, love Dr. Carrick, and he loved her. It tore him apart. But something new is introduced in the love triangle. Dr. Carrick's mother tends Selena's husband. He responds and sees that this house is a family that Selena needs to be happy. He needs it too.
God asks a lot out of these three characters. Dr. Carrick healed the husband, even though if he died, Selena could marry again. Selena could. have left her husband die so she would be rid of him, but she did everything he could to save him. The husband, himself, gave his wife to Dr. Carrick, knowing that Selena and Dr. Carrick loved each other. Each of these three went over and above the best that they thought they could ever be.
And don't you hope God never asks you to do something as soul-wrenching as the characters are asked to do, in Waiting for the Moon?
