To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides – David Viscott
This quote brings back memories of “Bridges of Madison County” by Robert James Waller, a book I read as a young girl. How I analysed the story then and how I look at it now are two ends of the spectrum. Love is perceived in many ways and that often changes with age and experiences. It comes in different forms, vast and complex, I don’t think it can be fathomed or judged by anyone, no one’s really understood what love is. A chemical reaction in the brain, a fluttering heart, a rush of blood, weak knees...all things associated with love, yet it’s a mystery to many.
This story has so many feelings and so much truth. One of my most favourite books, I loved the way it talks more about love than words can ever say. It was later adapted into a movie starring Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood. The characters in the movie did justice to the book and no other actors could have essayed the role of Francesca and Robert as well as the lead stars did.
This romantic drama is about the characters discovering themselves, one another, and a love which will last and sustain them for a lifetime. The intensity of their brief affair and the urge they feel to spend the rest of their lives together offers rich insights into the nature of love and marriage.
We are the choices we make. (Francesca)
The book opens with Francesca’s children reading her journals. The journals are found by her children after the lawyer goes over Francesca's will and all of the contents, which produces a key to her hope chest in the bedroom which contained some of hers and Robert's things. The message they take from the diaries is: do what you have to do to be happy in life. Through the pain of separation from her secret love and the stark isolation she feels as the details of her life consume her, she writes her thoughts of the four-day love affair.
I don’t want to need you, cause I can't have you. – Robert Kinkaid
Photographer Robert Kincaid wanders into the life of housewife Francesca Johnson. He leaves his home in Washington state and drives east to Madison County. Robert’s been sent there by National Geographic to photograph the county’s covered bridges. He has trouble finding the Roseman Bridge, so he stops at a random home on a rural road to ask for directions. The home belongs to Francesca and Richard. Richard has gone away for the week with his children, Michael and Carolyn, to visit the Illinois State Fair.
Francesca is reluctant in the beginning but then she agrees to show him to the bridges. She gradually opens up and talks about her life from being a war-bride from Italy which sets the pace for this bittersweet and brief romance of her life. Robert and Francesca are instantly attracted to one another. Over the next four days, they begin a romantic relationship, quickly falling in love with one another. They feel that they are destined to meet at this time when they both crave something more. Robert asks her to leave with him so that they can be together, but Francesca, knowing she has responsibilities at home, refuses to leave with him. They both know that when he leaves, they will not see one another again. Despite that, they both feel as though the little time they spent together is enough to last them a lifetime apart. It’s a story of special love that happens once in a lifetime.
Many years later after Robert’s death, Francesca receives a box of his most precious personal belongs, including a letter and a book of his photographs entitled Four Days. She learns that Robert Kincaid's cremated remains were scattered off Roseman Bridge and she wishes that she too be cremated and her ashes be scattered off Roseman Bridge. The children must decide whether to honour their mother's final wishes or to bury her alongside their father as the family had planned.
The book presents a richly-textured emotional tapestry. It's the kind of book you know is going to be special before much of the reading has happened. Heartbroken, she chose to remain on the farm. Decades passed. They never met again, but they lived out their lives constantly thinking, dreaming, and cherishing one another. Francesca is not an especially strong character -- things happen around her and she's swept up in the current. Sacrificing what her heart wants are the things love is made of, her feelings for her family and her responsibility towards them show another side of love.
It’s impossible to love deeply without sacrifice – Elizabeth Elliot
Sharda Kore
Visiting Faculty
ELTIS