In Every Life is a story about love, loss, second chances, and those what-ifs that can stay with us long after a decision has been made.
Harper thought she had found happiness with her husband, Ben, after losing her first love, Liam, and giving up her dream of becoming an artist. But when Ben is diagnosed with late-stage cancer, their life together changes in ways neither of them expected.
What touched me most was the love between Harper and Ben. Even knowing their time together is limited, Ben wants Harper to find happiness again. Their tattoos become a quiet symbol of the love they share, while Ben's music and Liam's book show bring other pieces of their lives into the story.
I also found myself thinking about Liam and the way he helps Ben find the workshop where they can work toward finding a cure for his cancer. Liam's mother died from cancer, and I couldn't help but wonder if, in helping Ben, he was also trying to do something for someone else that he couldn't do for his own mother. And by helping the man Harper loves, wasn't Liam also showing Harper just how much he still loved her?
Then Harper is given the chance to see what her life might have been like if she had made different choices.
What if she had stayed with Liam?
What if she had pursued her art?
Would that life really have been better?
I found myself thinking about how easy it is to look back at the roads we didn't take and imagine where they might have led us. But we can never really know, can we?
Maybe that is what stayed with me most. We all have those moments when we wonder what if? What if we had made a different choice? Taken a different path? Chased the dream we once had?
But then I think about Harper and wonder if perhaps the life we question is also the life we were meant to see a little differently.
I received a copy of this story from Olivia Almeida
