Laura Schroff and Alex Tresniowski, An Invisible Thread: The True story of an 11-year-old panhandler, a
busy sales executive, and an unlikely meeting with destiny (New York:
Howard Books; division of Simon and Schuster, 2011).
Also available for Kindle and Nook and as an audiobook.
(Non-fiction)
Recommended by Wilda Morris
In May, 2014, I attended a Road Scholar workshop entitled,
“Exploring the Writer in You” at Green Lake Conference Center in Wisconsin. The
focus for the 2014 event was “The Road Taken.” We were encouraged to write
memoir, which could take the form of creative non-fiction, poetry, or even—if
we wanted to stray over the line into fiction—short story.
The following Sunday, Pastor Linda Tossey quoted a short
section of An Invisible Thread in her
sermon. After the worship service, I asked her how to spell the author’s name.
She offered to loan me the book. I said, “Not now. I really don’t have time to
read it.” She assured me that she wouldn’t need it back soon, so I went ahead
and borrowed it, thinking it would sit on a pile for a while.
I made the “mistake” of opening the book to read a few pages
while my husband drove us home from church. Before I got out of the car, I was
hooked. I squeezed in a few minutes of reading time here and there, went to bed
late a couple of nights because I didn’t want to put it down, and soon finished
the book.
One day in the 1980s, Laura Schroff walked past a panhandler
who was asking for change on a Brooklyn corner. Panhandlers were just part of
the background in Metropolitan New York so it was easy for a successful advertising
executive to walk on by and not even see or hear a homeless man asking for
money. Out of the corner of her eye, though, Laura had noticed that this
panhandler was young. She stopped in the middle of the intersection, turned
around and went back. He stretched out his hand again, saying, “Excuse me,
lady, do you have any spare change? I’m hungry.” Acting on an impulse that
surprised both of them, she told the boy she would take him to McDonald’s and
buy him lunch. She said he could have whatever he wanted to eat there and asked
him if it was okay if she ate with him. He agreed. Thus began a long-time
relationship
Maurice was growing up in a violent, drug- and
alcohol-infested world. His mother was addicted to heroin. Virtually all his
neighbors and relatives were addicted to something. It was a scary and
unpredictable world. Maurice could come and go as he pleased; no one asked
where he was going or why. When his mother wasn’t in jail, she sold drugs to
put food on the table. His grandmother tried to provide some modicum of
stability for him and for his sisters, but the family kept having to move from
one derelict apartment to another. Sometimes there was more safety and
stability for Maurice on the streets than at home.
Laura grew up with an alcoholic father who abused his wife
and children, especially Laura’s brother Frank. When he was sober, he was a
wonderful father, but most of the time he was drunk. Laura’s mother tried to
protect her children, but the one time she took her children and went back to
her parents’ home, her mother told her she had to go back. This background, and
the fact that she had struggled for a time in school gave her empathy with
Maurice.
I won’t give away the arc of the story, the ups and downs of
the relationship, the interweaving of Laura’s memories with Maurice’s story, or
the many ways in which their friendship profoundly impacted both Laura and
Maurice.
The book is highly readable. It hooked me within a few pages
and kept me reading. I strongly recommend it!
A portion of the royalties for this book are donated to No
Kid Hungry. Check out the website connected to this book (http://www.aninvisiblethread.com/),
and click on the link to see Laura Schroff on the Today Show.
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