Comments | suburban_boho: From The Ashes 7/15

suburban_boho

From The Ashes 7/15

Dec 31, 2015 02:16

Title: From The Ashes

Pairing: Ultimately: Maureen/Cynthia.

Summary: After an unspeakable tragedy leaves her a young widow, Maureen works to re-build her life out of the shadow of her late husband, with the help of friends, family, and especially Cynthia.

Warnings: Major character death, self-harm and suicide, addiction, depictions of blood ( ( Read more... )

from the ashes, chapter 7, maureen/cynthia, fic

Comments 7

jonesingjay January 1 2016, 01:45:36 UTC

It's easy for me me to forget just what can and will set Maureen off. The bit with Ringo's beans is bittersweet. It's a fond remembrance of his being unable to eat spicy food. A rather innocent observation on the child and hard for Maureen to her from her soon. Another reminder that Ringo is gone and he isn't coming back. It's a difficult concept for a child to get and even though Maureen has no choice by to try and make sense of his actions because she knows he can't come back and explain it to her all the same it's still difficult on her ( ... )

suburban_boho January 1 2016, 08:59:02 UTC

That's the thing: Maureen can be set off by so many unrelated things. She'll eventually learn to handle them better but it's still a very fresh memory and very new circumstance. It's a little thing that her son remembers but to him it's 'different'. And Maureen not only has to process that it's different for her, she has to process that it's different for her nearly 5 year old by this point son who may not really grasp death as permanent yet.Not to mention Jason who totally isn't old enough to get it. So Maureen has to remind them both and thus remind herself ( ... )

mollybeakers January 8 2016, 22:59:19 UTC

The use of a one sided mother-daughter phone conversation was great to establish where things sit for Maureen (and Tiger, for that matter. lol). Things are busy and falling into place for her ( ... )

suburban_boho January 10 2016, 08:49:03 UTC

It's always important for me to have a good framing device as the pace I'm trying to set with this story doesn't allow for showing every step. As her mother would be the ideal person to 'catch up' on the happenings, it seemed to be the perfect fit to sum up what needed to be summed up ( ... )

missodell January 25 2016, 17:59:54 UTC

Hi,

Your story was recommended to me by our mutual friend, Jay so I though I would check it out and I'm very glad I did!

Firstly I want to say, what a bold and brave storyline to tackle! The death of a Beatle is a very sensitive and difficult subject to deal with and I think you've handled it very nicely, without overly sensationalising or - although there is angst in there - it's not over the top.

I see this as a story about grief, and how people deal with grief, especially when it seems as insurmountable as something like this would be. I thought one of the best bits of your writing was at the start of chapter 2 - Somehow, despite a part of her that wishes it hasn't, the world has kept turning... - I thought that perfectly captures grief like this. When something truly terrible has happened, doesn't it just seem unthinkable, impossible, that the world, life - and time - should carry on. It feels like everything should be frozen in that moment - the instance it's happened, or maybe when the initial debilitating shock has just ( ... )

suburban_boho January 27 2016, 21:26:35 UTC

First let me apologize for taking so long to get back to you. Real life doesn't allow me time to be on LJ as much as I'd like any longer ( ... )

missodell January 28 2016, 09:58:38 UTC

Oh, don't get me wrong - I don't mind a bit of angst, ha ha. What I mean to say is, often people make the characters much too weepy and waily, especially in a set up like this stories, and that's not how I think it would be. The way you write Maureen is very realistic. She's very British, if you like. That's not to say there aren't emotional moments, or angsty moments, - you can see that when there are odd things which trigger a memory for her or when grief overwhelms her - but yeah, for the most part she's even and level and trying to hold it together, just like I imagine she would be. You've written her really well. (Not easy to write any of the Beatles wives well, I think. It's harder to get a handle on the personalities - particularly ones like Mo who weren't at the forefront publicly ( ... )