Is Life One Big Goody by Rose Lamatt - review

here's my review. I have to admit, I do have an issue with the book but I think it is more design than anything else. The back of the book gives the description - in small white letters. The back cover gradually fades from dark gray to a lighter gray. This set up  to these old eyes makes it difficult to read the description. Just saying, make the letters a little larger and keep the cover just a little darker....

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First, I want to state this fact prior to this review.  I know Rose Lamatt from an online group. I received this book for free from Rose Lamatt in exchange for a review - and I promised an honest review. No compensation was offered or implied by M's Lamatt. Now that I have gotten the disclaimer out of the way, it's on to the review.

This is a true story, lived and described by Rose Lamatt. M's Lamatt is a 68 year old woman who lived through a tornado of troubles in her life, leaving her living at a homeless shelter. Most of the problems are in the past as the book begins. M's Lamatt had a long drawn out divorce battle  that left her (ex)husband with the house, the money and the adult children. Prior to that event, M's Lamatt lived in a country club sort of world - playing golf, going to operas and having household servants.
She also loses a dear friend to the relentless destruction that is Alzheimer's Disease. Add to this terrible mix a very tough vertebral fusion and the staggering amount of hospital bills and you wind up with one perfect recipe for a trip to a homeless shelter.As you can guess, the homeless shelter is a total shock  for a formerly well to do 68 year old white woman who id trying to recover from neck surgery.
M's Lamatt ends up at a homeless shelter that apparently has some paying customers. Because M's Lamatt has "too much money", she can not receive benefits like disability or food stamps. Her children do not have anything to do with her. Her "ladies who lunch" friends are not interested in her either since M's Lamatt fell on hard times.  Her new neighbors are a mix of abused, traumatized, mentally ill and substance abuse women. Not exactly the kind of women who get together at the 19th hole to discuss their latest golf score.
M's Lamatt starts off fighting the situation - she hates it, she doesn't belong there, everything is horrible and she should not be stuck in a place "like that". But her economic condition doesn't allow for much else and she needs to figure out how to deal with the situation.
Slowly, surely, M's Lamatt begins to change. The people she meets start to change her into a softer, more spiritual person. But it's a long bittersweet journey - M's Lamatt has to learn about herself as well as her roommates.

[[ASIN:1466252928 Is Life One Big Goodbye: One Homeless woman's survival Story]] focuses on M's Lamatt's journey. There's no miracle rescue, no kids decide "yes, we must help Mom" or lawyers who come up with a way to get more money from the ex. It's a sort of journal that M's Lamatt uses to describe her reactions and thoughts about living in a homeless shelter. It's about the small baby steps M's Lamatt takes towards changing her outlook on life. Most are subtle - you don't see the change in her empathy or interactions immediately. Some things seem strange to me, but I have to admit I know almost nothing about homeless shelters. My only experience has been dropping off food and other supplies there.
M's Lamatt spares no one in her story - not even herself. The word portraits she writes lets the reader see the people as they are, not as some sort of wonderful angels or terrible demons. They are human, just like she is and they are all in the same boat.
Although the focus in this book is on the homeless shelter life, this book's wisdom could apply to many other life situations - such as going through a horrible divorce or restarting your life after any loss - job, love, health just to name a few. The way M's Lamatt handles her story can provide directions for your own life.

I recommend this book highly for the viewpoint of homeless shelters as well as life changes it presents. I believe I learned a lot from this book and believe this book would be beneficial to many people.
Read it.