Eliza Kratke is a heroine unto her own right in Sweet Vidalia by Lisa Sandlin. Newly widowed, jobless, on the brink of homelessness. It's remarkable what a woman can accomplish the moment she decides to. Author Lisa Sandlin shares a little bit about how Eliza came to be -- and how she can serve as inspiration for all of us. Check out the full Page & Pairing guide to Sweet Vidalia, here.
Sweet Vidalia
by Lisa Sandlin
I’ve been out of a job before. I’ve had my eye on a job I know I could do, that I’d be good at -- but first, I needed to get hired. Needed to get past the gatekeepers of the interview -- and then that second or third level of gatekeepers, who often required some special speech or performance. Tension, nerves, fright! As a single mother, I had to take some jobs I didn’t love: at an organization begging people to donate blood; at a florist’s reigned over by a raunchy parrot; in a bar where the owner made surprise visits through a hidden door; in a wood shop plastered with posters featuring naked women and “Penises of the Animal Kingdom.”
It wasn’t tough to imagine Eliza Kratke. Not difficult to pile on disasters that stretched her to breaking. She did break for a while, by retreating to her bed and covers. And oh my, what a comfort that can be -- especially if you’ve got 80 episodes of “The Great British Baking Show” to disappear into. What interested me was what forces pulled Eliza out of her bed. What did it take and how did she endure those forces? How did she face failure? How did all this change her? What did she have to let go and what did she hold onto?
I’ve had to start over a number of times. I bet you have, too. Moved for a job into a community where you know no one. Where you find yourself learning the new work and trying to make friends, at a somewhat later age, because you need friends. You also meet people who pass through your life and out, as Eliza does at the Sweet Vidalia Residence Inn. They may leave a mark on you, too. The hero’s journey is not confined to swords and dragons, but is much wider and more common -- and during our one life, we all enter into it many times. That’s how we end up being who we are.