Once in a Lifetime

by Mary Monroe

Genres: Holiday books; Women's Fiction

Synopsis

Beloved award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Mary Monroe delivers a hopeful and heartwarming story about an impossible Christmas dream, an unexpected act of goodwill—and a surprising chain of events that
could gift joy far beyond the holiday season …
Free-spirited, living on the fly, Vanessa Hayes is still always down for traditional family holiday fun—until now. She’s making her oft-delayed wish finally come true: Christmas in Paris, the glittering City of Lights. But when her passport gets
delayed, it’s too late for Vanessa to rebook. Now it looks like the Yuletide she longs for won’t happen. Until a stranger suddenly enters her life, and changes it forever …
Overwhelmed by responsibility, Judith Guthrie is too busy worrying about her seriously ill brother to have time to celebrate. She’s taken a leave from her teaching job to care for him as he’s on the waiting list for a life-giving transplant. A
trip to France is a kind of happiness she can’t imagine. But when she accidentally receives Vanessa’s passport, Judith can’t resist delivering it in person so Vanessa will at least have her holiday dream. She can’t anticipate that her small gesture
will result in a series of big choices, big miracles, and lifelong rewards that all will be thankful for over many Christmases to come …

Release date: September 28, 2021

Publisher: Kensington Books

Print pages: 208

Sample

November 1, 2014

I never would have guessed that an encounter with two strangers would change my life forever. Even if I had known in advance what fate had in store for me, I would not have changed a thing.

There was nothing extraordinary about my life. At the age of thirty-two, I had settled into a comfortable routine. I had a lot to be thankful for: a good education, a great job, excellent health, a nice apartment in a San Jose, California, suburb, and a family and friends I adored. I managed my money well, so I lived a fairly comfortable lifestyle, which included frequent out-of-town vacations each year.

I had a very short bucket list by now: marriage, children, and a nice house. But after I turned thirty, people stopped asking me when I was going to get married. Everybody knew I was impulsive and strong minded and insisted that it turned off a lot of men—especially the ones I kept getting involved with. Still being single didn’t bother me. I wasn’t quite ready to give up my freedom anyway. I wanted to do more things on my own terms. Especially more traveling. Having a husband would mean we’d have to agree on how much money to spend, where to go, when, and what to do once we got there. On some of my previous adventures, there had been times when I’d only wanted to spend the day kicking back on the beaches or stretched out in my hotel bed watching TV.

I’d already visited some of the most intriguing cities in the world, but one of the places I still wanted to see was Paris, France. I thought about it a lot. And so did Mama and Daddy.

I had been with them for about an hour that Saturday morning. We had discussed some of the same subjects we discussed on a regular basis, and a few new ones. One was my plan to spend the week of Christmas in Paris this year. My parents rarely interfered in my personal life. And when they did, I took it in stride. They knew by now that no matter what they said, I was going to do whatever I wanted.

“I don’t like the idea of you going way over there by yourself,” Daddy told me in a concerned tone. “I thought Madeline and Odette were going to go with you.”

“I thought the same thing. I’ve been waiting for them for almost ten years,” I replied. “I’d like to go while I’m still fairly young, so I’ve decided to go alone.”

“There’s a lot of criminal activity going on in Europe,” Daddy continued.

“Aw, hush up, Alex. There’s a lot of criminal activity going on over here, too,” Mama scolded as she wagged her finger in Daddy’s face. She turned to me with a smile. “Baby, as long as you’re careful, you’ll enjoy Paris as much as I did. Before you leave, make sure you pack everything you’ll need. Especially your passport.”

“I couldn’t find it.”

Mama gave me a stern look and shook her head. “Vanessa, as much as you like to travel, you of all people should keep your passport in a safe place at all times.”

“It was in a safe place. I think I accidentally threw it out the last time I purged my files. But I applied for a new one last month. The clerk said I should receive it in three or four weeks.” I paused and scratched the side of my neck and gave Mama a thoughtful look. “The funny thing is, it’s been that long already. Oh well. I’m sure it’ll arrive any day. That’s the least of my worries right now. I’m hungry! Let’s go out to dinner this evening. My treat. What’ll it be this time—Chinese, Mexican, or Italian?” I sprang up from the easy chair facing Mama and Daddy on the floral couch in the suite they resided in at the Alliance Retirement Home.

“Honey, we’d love to eat out with you again. We’ve already made plans for this evening, though.” Mama swallowed hard and gave me a sympathetic look. “Vanessa, we appreciate all you do for us. But you need to focus more on yourself. You don’t have to spend so many of your Saturday nights with us like you’ve been doing.”

“I love coming over here to visit and chat,” I protested.

“You mean to ‘check up’ on us,” Daddy teased. He snorted and gave me a stern look. “This place has more orderlies and nurses than you can shake a stick at. That was one of the main reasons we chose this particular facility. Moving here was the best decision we ever made. Don’t worry about us.”

My parents were both approaching seventy and still in fairly good shape. They ate healthy meals, only consumed alcohol every now and then, and got a decent amount of exercise. Daddy had a weakness for sweets, so he was about twenty pounds overweight, and all of his hair was gray. But he was still one of the most attractive senior citizens I knew. I had inherited his round face, big brown eyes, and reddish-brown complexion. Mama, also slightly overweight but still attractive, had arthritis in one of her knees and occasionally had to use a walker. But nothing slowed them down when they wanted to do something. Their lives were as active as mine. I still worried about them, though.

I took a deep breath and continued, speaking in a slightly firmer tone. “Daddy, you told me that some of the residents here are bored, lonely, and depressed because their family members rarely visit them.”

“Pffftt!” Mama gave me a dismissive wave. “We never have time to be bored, depressed, or lonely. Your brother was here again yesterday evening and didn’t know when to leave. He made us late for our shuffleboard game.”

“My godson and his wife stopped by and took us to Red Lobster, day before yesterday. Your sister and her husband came three days in a row last week,” Daddy said.

“We put too much responsibility on you when you were still in school. Your time is all yours now. Live the life you deserve before it’s too late,” Mama added.

I hated when my parents talked like this. I loved them and would have done anything in the world to make them comfortable in their old age. I’d even helped them pick out the retirement home. It was plain looking and on a dead-end street. But it was safe and well kept. My baby sister, Debra, compared it to that gloomy motel featured in the movie Psycho, but our brother, Gary, thought it was a great choice. It was only two blocks from our church and other conveniences. Daddy still owned the Buick he’d been driving for five years, but they usually called Uber when he didn’t feel like driving. And whenever they wanted me to drive them somewhere, I never hesitated. Debra and Gary helped out as much as they would let them, but I was always the first one they called. One of the reasons was because my twenty-two-year-old sister had two-year-old twin sons and they kept her busy. Gary, who was twenty-five, worked as a welder for a company in Oakland. He drove fifty miles each way, five days a week, so his days were very long. He also spent a lot of time with his girlfriend, so it wasn’t easy for him to visit Mama and Daddy. I had a busy life, too. But because I was the eldest and had more time to spare, I felt it was my obligation to be available to assist my parents as much as possible.

Unlike some of the dozens of other residents at the home who occupied small, no frills rooms, my parents had a spacious suite. It was large enough to accommodate two full-size beds, a couch, a few other living room items, and they had a patio with lounge chairs. After maintaining our four-bedroom family home for over thirty-five years, they’d decided that they wanted to live the rest of their years more simply. I’d tried to talk them into selling the house and buying a small condo. That hadn’t interested them at all. They’d laughed when I invited them to move into my two-bedroom, one-bath apartment with me.

“I am living the life I deserve,” I insisted.

“What happened to Barry?” Daddy asked with one eyebrow raised. “You haven’t mentioned him since he had dinner with us last month.”

“Oh. Well, things didn’t work out with him,” I admitted. “But we’re still going to be friends, though.” I didn’t want to tell my folks that Barry Lockett had given me an ultimatum: accompany him to Maine where he’d been offered a position at the high school he had attended, or he’d go without me. Even though he’d previously implied that we’d eventually get married, I’d declined his offer. As much as I had cared about him, he was a little too controlling and irresponsible, so I was not about to quit my dream job and uproot myself for him. Three days after he’d had dinner with my parents, two weeks before Halloween, he sent me an e-mail in the middle of the night to let me know that he was ending our relationship. To add insult to injury, he also told me in the e-mail not to contact him because he didn’t want to hear anything I had to say. I checked his Facebook page last week to see what he was up to. Even though his new job wouldn’t start until September, I was surprised to discover that he had already moved to Maine.

“That’s a shame. It would have been nice to have a schoolteacher in the family. Well, you’re still fairly young and you look good. There is plenty of time to figure out your future. But don’t squander your time, sugar. Buh-leeve me, life goes by faster than folks realize,” Mama said. She gave me another sympathetic look, something she did quite often. “Why don’t you go visit your sister this evening? I’d hate for you to be over there in that apartment by yourself. Debra’s still trying to get the house fixed up to her liking and maybe you can help.”

My sister and her husband had eagerly accepted our parents’ invitation to move into the house we’d been raised in after Mama and Daddy moved to the retirement home four months ago. They had paid off the mortgage, so Debra and Stephen only had to pay for maintenance, property taxes, and homeowners’ fees. I rolled my eyes. “I’ll pass on that. They have out-of-town company this weekend again,” I replied.

“What about Madeline and Odette? You three have been joined at the hips for years,” Daddy tossed in.

“I’m having coffee with them after church tomorrow. Anyway, they usually spend their Saturday evenings doing things with their families. I’m glad I’m still free to do whatever I want,” I muttered with a mild sigh.

Mama had worked as a flight attendant for more than thirty-five years. She’d spent days at a time away from home in fabulous places like Rome, London, Tokyo, and Paris. Daddy had managed a night shift crew for a meatpacking company even longer. I’d spent some of my best high school and college years supervising Debra and Gary and taking care of the house. Even though I was glad to do it, I’d promised myself that when they got old enough to take care of themselves, I’d make up for all the parties and other good times I hadn’t been able to enjoy with my friends. Daddy had helped when he could, and he’d occasionally hired a woman to do some of the cooking and cleaning. So, I had never complained.

A month after Gary finished high school, he joined the navy. After his discharge three years later, he enrolled in a welding school and moved into an apartment with two of his friends. Six months after Debra received her high school diploma, she chose to marry her long-term boyfriend instead of going to college. She promised Mama and Daddy that she would resume her education later and that appeased them. I was happy for Debra, and even happier that my “babysitting” responsibilities had finally come to an end.

A wee. . .