Two women were fighting over a child. “He is my child, leave him alone,” cried the lady in the red sari. The poor child was too young to speak.“No, he is mine,” cried the woman in the green sari. Soon a crowd gathered.The village elders took the quarreling women to a wise man. The village wise man asked the lady in the red sari, “What do you have to say?”“He is my child, Sir. I was bathing in the river and had left my son on the bank. This woman lifted my child and ran away. I hurriedly dressed and ran after her,” said the woman.The wise man asked the other woman to explain.

The Real Mother Story. 

“She is a liar, Sir. I was the one bathing in the river. He is my only child. She came there, picked him up and ran. Luckily I could catch her,” said the other woman.Villagers who were watching this drama did not know whom to believe.The wise man got up. Using a twig, he drew a line on the ground. He asked the two women to stand on either side of the line, and placed the child in the middle. As instructed by the wise man, one woman held the child’s left hand and the other, his right hand.“Now listen to me carefully,” said the wise man, “Both of you need to pull the child to your side.

The wise man took the child away from the woman in the red sari. “Only a mother can have a tender heart for her child,” he said.He handed the child over to the real mother who hugged the child. The child lifter was given a strict warning and allowed to go.

The child belongs to whoever drags him over to her side.”The woman in red sari pulled the child hard with all her might. As the child cried in pain, the other woman, let him go.“He is mine,” the woman in the red sari shouted in triumph, even as the other woman broke down in tears.“Wait,” said the wise man turning to the villagers, “Who do you think loves the child more? She who pulled the child to her side or the one who let the child go?”The villagers answered, “She who let go loves the child more.”

Judith Michael is beloved around the world for powerful stories of love and family. Now this renowned author returns with a richly emotional tale of the many kinds of love and the collision of good and evil that threatens to tear a family apart. Sara Elliott has been forced to give up the life she's dreamed of to return home to Chicago and take charge of her sisters and brother. She finds a job and settles into the house she grew up in, building a life for ten-year-old Doug and teenagers Carrie and Abby. But Sara has another brother, Mack, now twenty, who left home three years earlier. Suddenly he reappears, cheerful and unconcerned, as if he had never broken his promise to stay and help Sara with the children and the house. With bewildering volatility, Mack swings from kindness to cruelty, affection to hostility, keeping the family always on edge, his past and present a mystery. But with expensive gifts, storytelling, and the excitement of his presence, he is winning over the children, and sometimes the four of them stand together against Sara. Mack challenges all Sara has achieved in trying to be a mother and keep her family together. And he does it at a time when she is confronted by crises at work that spill over into her home. Suddenly, events seem to be speeding past and Sara feels she cannot slow them down to regain control. And then, when she thinks her life has room only for work and family, she meets Reuben Lister, a client from New York. As Sara helps him find and furnish a house and explore the city, they discover a closeness neither has known before and share new ways of dealing with conflicts each has always faced alone. Together, Sara and Reuben find answers to the questions: What is a mother? What is a parent? What is a family? This is Judith Michael's most poignant exploration of the pressures and joys facing modern adults and children, in a story that will resonate with everyone for its universal themes and discoveries.

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Judith Michael is beloved around the world for powerful stories of love and family. Now this renowned author returns with a richly emotional tale of the many kinds of love and the collision of good and evil that threatens to tear a family apart.Sara Elliott has been forced to give up the life she's dreamed of to return home to Chicago and take charge of her sisters and brother. She finds a job and settles into the house she grew up in, building a life for ten-year-old Doug and teenagers Carrie and Abby.But Sara has another brother, Mack, now twenty, who left home three years earlier. Suddenly he reappears, cheerful and unconcerned, as if he had never broken his promise to stay and help Sara with the children and the house. With bewildering volatility, Mack swings from kindness to cruelty, affection to hostility, keeping the family always on edge, his past and present a mystery. But with expensive gifts, storytelling, and the excitement of his presence, he is winning over the children, and sometimes the four of them stand together against Sara.Mack challenges all Sara has achieved in trying to be a mother and keep her family together. And he does it at a time when she is confronted by crises at work that spill over into her home. Suddenly, events seem to be speeding past and Sara feels she cannot slow them down to regain control.And then, when she thinks her life has room only for work and family, she meets Reuben Lister, a client from New York. As Sara helps him find and furnish a house and explore the city, they discover a closeness neither has known before and share new ways of dealing with conflicts each has always faced alone. Together, Sara and Reuben find answers to the questions: What is a mother? What is a parent? What is a family?This is Judith Michael's most poignant exploration of the pressures and joys facing modern adults and children, in a story that will resonate with everyone for its universal themes and discoveries.

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