Suzanne Nelson was raised just outside of San Francisco. A Stanford grad and varsity runner, she heads to New York City for law school. She is gay, but has come out to no one. In New York she meets Kerry Neally, a New Yorker and fellow student. Who is straight. First in a study group and then as a pair, they find themselves become attached to one another. And have to work out that Kerry thinks she's straight. Eileen is Kerry's mother. She is a widow, and meeting Suzanne helps her leave the shell into which she placed herself after her husband died. And she comes to the attention of two men. One a widower. The other divorced. And love intevenes for her choice. With Suzanne settled into her New York life, she turns her back on her parents, who turned their backs on Suzanne's aunt Mary, a gay woman disowned by her parents and brother decades before. She, too, lives in New York and she and Eileen attempt to get Suzanne's parents to understand their daughter. Kate Nelson comes to New York to reason with her daughter. As eventually does William, her father. The story is about how the members of what becomes a large New York family deal with themselves, each other, and love.

The Neallys

I heard Tom’s car enter his driveway as I helped Mary prepare for her wedding. I was her Maid-of-Honor. I looked out and saw my Mother get out of the car with Tom and walk towards the house. I dashed away from Mary, saying my Mother had arrived and that I’d be right back and rushed down the stairs to greet her. Kerry, though, who had been helping Betty get ready, beat me to it. And when Tom opened the door and waited for my Mother in a dress she must have bought after we left her, to enter the house first, I saw Kerry rush to her and hug her and I followed.


My Mother was treated as an honored guest at the wedding, although there was an undeniable tension in the air. But we made it through and enjoyed the wedding of Mary Elizabeth Nelson to Betty Anne Elliot.


Chapter 55