The Last Living Waitress of the Home Cafe

On a late spring morning in 1973, Marie Ward Spencer and her husband Mark are killed in a traffic accident, leaving behind their 12-year-old daughter in the care of a family that loved land and tradition more than they loved one another. Maggie Spencer is set adrift in a rural community caught up in a cycle of economic and cultural change where the center is not holding, and she must find her own way to womanhood. There’s no room for mistakes in a culture where women’s choices are limited, and missteps are judged harshly. When a photo of Maggie ends up as a centerfold in a men’s magazine, she loses what little support she had. Her efforts to start over in a new town end in marriage to an older man, but tragedy follows her, and she finds herself once again without a home. This mother-daughter love story, told from both sides of the grave from multiple points of view, explores the complexities of maternal and romantic love and female friendship, and takes an unflinching look at the pain and joys of human desire.