The Bridge Ladies

After a lifetime of defining herself against her mother, Betsy unexpectedly returns to her childhood home of New Haven. No sooner does she cross state lines than old patterns reemerge, old conflicts flare. Everything her mother says feels like a referendum on her life: her hair, her frayed jeans, throwing away money on Starbucks, and why does she always have to wear black! All the entrenched mother-daughter behaviors return full force. The generation gap seems wider than ever.

Enter the Bridge Ladies, a small band of five women who have been playing cards with her mother, Roz, on Mondays for more than fifty-five years—still clad in matching outfits, heels, their hair done, and still serving luncheon on linen, china, and silver.  After Roz had some surgery, each one visited with a meal. Betsy admired their loyalty. She knew if she ever got sick her friends would probably send her texts: Feel better! Miss you! Facebook was great, but it wouldn’t deliver a pot roast.

Tentatively at first, Betsy joins the Monday bridge group, and eventually learns to play the game that “well acquaints you with your deficits.” Over time, she gets to know the ladies and, most surprisingly, her mother. Bridge becomes a metaphor for crossing the emotional divide. Darkly funny and deeply moving, The Bridge Ladies is an unforgettable story of the hard-won but never-too-late bond that can be rekindled between mothers and daughters.