My Mother's Wish: An American Christmas Carol

by: Jerry Camery-Hoggatt, PhD

Published by: Waterbrook Press

Reviewed by Patty Inglish

Jerry Camery-Hoggatt writes My Mother’s Wish remarkably in the voice of a woman looking at her early years with uncommon insight. Little Ellee sounds much like Mark Twain, while Teen Ellee sounds a lot like someone I want to know and could have been. As a Polar Express, conducted by humor like that of Twain and Roald Dahl, this story is priceless. It should be read aloud to children and adults at Christmastime.

Ellee’s mother tries to tie off the loose ends of unfinished business with her own mother by naming Ellee after the older woman, “Eleanor Crumb” McKutcheon. The name Eleanor represents high tea and lace, while young Eleanor wants to be called by her real name, Ellee, which represents adventure and individualism. She wants the unconditional love and acceptance we celebrate at Christmas and does not want to wear the cloak of expectations best suited to someone else. Ellee flees one night after she listens from upstairs as her mother calls her horrid names to her father downstairs.

Only Ellee’s third grade teacher ever understood the need for a real name, later coming to Ellee as a gypsy in a dream. Ellee becomes that gypsy, heading out of the 1960’s Midwest to Nebraska, where she seeks shelter from a storm in the Comeback Cafe close to Christmas day. The diner goes silent as an old trucker picks up a crying infant and sings ancient Christmas carols that transform the diner into Holy Ground for several minutes of magic that evaporates as he returns to his seat at the dining counter.

Amid school administrators and waitresses that seem to have several arms each, Ellee finds a friend in a trucker driving a boatload of goulash to the Midwest. He’s related to someone she knows and perhaps also to God himself. His truck, called the Good Ship Horvath, transports Ellee towards acceptance with a parable.

If we could apply this story outside of the week between Christmas and New Year’s, we could better change the world, one corner at a time.

Don’t mail Christmas cards this year–send this book.

Armchair Interviews agrees.