Will I ever be happy reading this? That’s the exact question I asked my best friend (who loaned me the book) halfway through The Women by Kristin Hannah. Frankie McGrath’s journey was an emotional rollercoaster, to say the very least. I had no idea how much emotionally this book would take out of me.
Tragedy after tragedy, heartbreak layered on top of heartbreak. It felt relentless.
Sadly, most of my frustration and emotional turmoil came after the Vietnam War, when Frankie was back home. Yes, far beyond the absolute horrors of the war… Frankie was completely abandoned, ignored, and erased from her time in Vietnam.
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Over and over again, Frankie was told women weren’t there, that her suffering wasn’t real, that her sacrifices didn’t count. She fought to save lives, yet when she was the one that needed saving, the world turned its back on her. The injustice of it all made this book even more gut-wrenching.
She was there. She saw it all. And yet, she had to spend her life trying to prove it over and over again.
Women Are Heroes
The loneliness of that reality was almost unbearable to read, thinking about how many real women experienced the exact same thing.
The war didn’t end for them when they came home; in some ways, the fight only got harder.
The women had a story to tell, even if the world wasn’t quite yet ready to hear it, and their story began with three simple words. We were there.
Kristin Hannah, The Women
The women of the war had each other (thank goodness), and together they found ways to make their voices heard, to help make sense of the things they absolutely could not control (PTSD).
Through all of that, though, I held onto one thing: the hope that Jamie was alive. Even when he disappeared, even when there was no sign of him for years, I just knew.
And while this story isn’t about a love that saves the day, his return in the final moments felt like a steady confirmation of hope and survival. A way to find peace after everything.
But We’re Here Now
When Frankie and Jamie reunite, she says to him, “You could have found me.” To which he replies, “I wasn’t ready. It’s been rough. Healing.” And then, “But we’re here now. You and me, McGrath. Finally.”
Frankie found her way back to herself, not because of Jamie, but because she fought her way there.
However, Jamie was a nice final touch to her recovery journey.
That was the starting and ending point in life: love. The journey was everything in between.
Kristin Hannah, The Women
And then, there was the stone. The small, simple stone Frankie had given Jamie when he was injured and airlifted away in Vietnam. Through all the years apart, through the pain, the war, and the healing, he never let it go.
Maybe it was a symbol of survival, of something unfinished, or a thread that held them together across time. Or maybe, it was just love, in its simplest form, carried through everything.
And so, at the very last page, I felt that long-awaited happiness. Kind of.
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