About the book…
One Day meets Up: The House That Made Us is a love story – and a life story – told through a series of photographs and based on a true story
When Mac and Marie marry and find a home of their own, Mac takes a snap of themselves outside their newbuild bungalow, the garden bare and the paint on the front door still wet. It becomes a tradition, this snap, and slowly the photographs build into an album of a fifty-year partnership.
Every year they take a photo and though things change around them – the garden matures, the fashions change, they grow older – the one constant is their love. Every year, come rain, come shine, from the Seventies through the decades, every photo tells the story of their love.
Until the last photo, where the couple becomes one, and their story comes to an end…
My thoughts…
Where do I begin, what a book! ‘The House That Made Us’ has to be one of the most incredible moving, emotive and beautiful books that I’ve read in a long time, it will stay will me forever.
At he heart of the story are Mac and Marie who marry and move into their very first home. Mac started a tradition of taking a photograph of them both outside their house every year on their anniversary which tell the story of their life together and absolute undying love for each, their hopes and dreams for the future.
I absolutely loved Mac and Marie, the unconditional love and stability they gave each other and to their extended family and friends literally oozed from the pages. I do have to say their house was definitely not a house it was most certainly a HOME. A home that wrapped itself around them and around those close to them. The love and kindness was embedded into the very fabric of the building.
They always looked ahead to the future, saving what they could to fulfil their distant dreams. Time after time their hopes, plans and dreams abandoned but never forgotten just as they were about to be fulfilled, whenever life through them a curve ball - never feeling bitter when their lives unexpectedly changed direction and followed a different track. I loved that they shared the same thoughts and opinions, each thinking things through independently, coming to a decision and then finding they were aligned when they they shared them with each other, they truly were two of the most selfless people I’ve read about.
I absolutely loved reading their story, spanning fifty years from the 70’s - so many memories brought to life by the anniversary photo’s that became the album of their lives. The story resonating just a little bit more for me, as I was a child growing up in the 70’s and reading Mac and Marie’s story sparked distant memories of how life was back then pre the digital age.
I could say so much more but don’t want to spoil such a special story for others. This was the last book I read of 2022 and I would say if you haven’t already had the pleasure of being a fly on the wall of the most beautiful life story of Mac and Marie you need to clear your day and dive right in you won’t be disappointed. They definitely got it right in life - love, kindness and happiness trumping material gains every time!
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