Surprise Packages, The Company of Good Women Vol. III

By Lael Littke, Nancy Anderson, Carroll Hofeling Morris

Reviewed by Kathleen Dalton-Woodbury
On 11/15/2008

Deseret Book, 2008 Paperback:
400 pages
ISBN-10: 1-59038-908-5
ISBN-13: 978-1-59038-908-9 Price: $17.95

The final book in the Company of Good Woman series, Surprise Packages, takes its title from a lecture the three women attend during one of their reunions, this time in Arizona. The lecturer is a Native American who shares a wonderful insight:

"I have a personal belief that each decision we make in life puts together a package that will inevitably be opened at some time in the future. Some decisions we make without conscious awareness, and some we make by choosing not to choose in a given situation, thus not thinking about consequences.

"But, decisions can also be made as the result of looking ahead to what we want our lives to be. This gives us something to live into. Even little things begin to put together packages to be opened in the future." (pp. 65-66)

As the story proceeds, the women notice how the things they have done in the past come into play again in their lives. They face their own mistakes, learn how to let go of habits and responses that are no longer required for their own peace of mind, and they grow into the kind of women they decided they wanted to be when they met in 1980.

There are more deaths as loved ones age, but there are also marriages, and children and grandchildren born to continue the cycle of life and to be part of the surprise packages. One of the women moves from northern Utah to Florida and has to adjust to a different climate as well as a different way of doing things. The one whose husband could no longer stay married to her because of his homosexuality finds love again and marriage, and bears two children when she would have thought she was too old for that. The third almost loses her husband to a heart attack while their house is in the middle of extensive remodeling, and they find themselves celebrating Christmas for two years in a row in an unfinished house. Each of the women discover strengths and weaknesses that they had not been aware of, and they continue to grow as women and as sisters in the gospel.

As they near their twenty-fifth anniversary as friends, one of them finds herself dealing with physical problems that she fears mean she needs to prepare for her own death, and so she makes a "just in case" list of things she wants to do before that time comes. When she learns that her situation is not as dire as she thought, she and her friends realize that we all need to prepare for that time, no matter when it may come.

Life delivers surprise packages at every turn, and this third book in the series explores how women of faith, as individuals and as members of a great sisterhood, can create those packages deliberately or unconsciously, and how, through the support they give each other and the help of their faith in God, they can find the joy in each package that opens in their lives.

Once again, the things that happen to each woman are things that could happen to any woman, and these books are for all women, as well as for those who love them, to remind us all that we are deciding every day what packages we and those dear to us will be opening in the days and lives to come.


Copyright 2008