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| Virginia Evans |
Sybil and her brother were adopted by a well-off family. Sybil became an attorney and was for 30 years the working partner of an influential judge. She was married to a man from Belgium whom she loved and with whom she had three children. Their middle child died in a swimming accident at the age of eight, however, and their marriage did not survive this terrible event. Sybil turns in on herself and her husband, Dan, must care for the remaining kids, Bruce and Fiona, who was only four at the time.
At 72, Sybil is reluctant to leave her house and garden at the edge of a river in Maryland, where she sits with her paper and pens. A rich life flows from her forthright writing. In a letter to a friend, Sybil writes: “Relationships are the meat of our lives. They are links in a long chain … a story is thus preserved in some way. They are the original civility.”
Sybil writes to her brother, a journalist and writer, who lives with his partner in France. She writes to authors she admires and to a friend, Rosalie, with whom she has corresponded for years. She writes to the child of a colleague, Harry, who is probably autistic, brilliant at math. When this kid runs away from home, he comes to live with Sybil for a while.
After their divorce, Dan returned to Brussels, taking Fiona, who, as an adult, lives in London. Sybil has trouble speaking to her daughter, who professes not to understand her mother. When Dan is dying, he writes an anguished letter to Sybil, forgiving her of any guilt over Gilbert’s death. Sybil tries to answer the letter, but is unable to before Dan dies. When she doesn’t come to the funeral, Fiona is outraged.
Bruce, Sybil’s son, lives near her. At Christmas, he gives her the gift of a DNA matching service, which Sybil at first resists. She has a cordial relationship with a neighbor, Theodore Lubeck, a German who escaped before the war. She is also introduced to a colleague, Mick, whose company she enjoys. She even visits him in Texas and he proposes marriage.
In other correspondence, Sybil tries to get a Syrian refugee engineer a better job, fights to be able to audit classes at a nearby college and hears from a young man who wishes her ill, since a case she worked on went badly for him. She quarrels with her good friend Rosalie, who tries to get her to reconcile with Fiona. And finds that she has a 49% DNA match with a woman named Henrietta Gleason who lives in Scotland.
When Sybil procrastinates and the trail on Ms. Gleason goes cold, Harry, with his superior Internet skills, steps in and finds her address. Sybil writes to her and finds that Hattie is indeed her sister! Hattie can also tell Sybil more about her birth mother and father, though she does not know why Sybil was given up for adoption.
As Sybil grows closer to Theodore Lubeck, he confesses his feelings of guilt, as he escaped while his father and brother died at Dachau. Sybil confesses to him the circumstances of her son’s death, which include her inattention. Confession lifts the inner scream which has lived in Sybil all these years and she feels more peaceful.
Sybil finally does reconcile with Fiona and goes to London to see her. Fiona drives them to Scotland, where they visit Hattie and her brothers. Sybil’s experience in Scotland is “magical and painful.” She invites Theodore to come. By the time they return to the United States, Sybil and Theodore move in together. Sybil, at 80, is indeed losing her sight and Theodore must read and write her correspondence. They take a last trip to Paris, but then Sybil dies suddenly of a pulmonary embolism.
I found Sybil’s story movingly told. After a long life of work, a certain amount of strain, but also quiet dignity, Sybil slowly opens herself to a time of happiness with her daughter and her newly-found sister. She also finds a companion in Theodore Lubeck. I highly recommend the audiobook of this title, as those who perform it have just the right emotional tone for the characters.
