Hindsight

About the Book

In Hindsight Carla Whitewater, daughter of a WWII veteran blinded while serving as a pilot, tries to understand the background and events that led to the precipitous end of her childhood. Carla’s memories, conjectures, and family stories are interrupted periodically by conversations with her late father’s irreverent, insistent, and outspoken glass eye.

Like soldiers throughout history, Carter Whitewater, bore the epigraph of war on both body and spirit. Courage and determination helped him overcome his disability, and with extraordinary intelligence, humor, and wit he initially appeared to be managing the difficult emotional and psychological realm of blindness. In reality, he increasingly used the anesthetizing effect of alcohol to subjugate his underlying anger and resentment about his situation. Cycles of elation and hope followed by despair and uncertainty were the continuing pattern of his life and consequently that of his family.

About the Author

Donna Balfe lives in Valparaiso, Indiana with her husband and various combinations of her six children who return periodically from college, work, travels, and real-life, seeking regeneration of spirit and humor. Donna began writing fiction and poetry in the 1980s after hearing a fable about the impending empty nest--a prophesy that threatened never to materialize.

Her book of poetry, The Last Housewife in America, was published by CROSS ROADS PRESS, and her short fiction has appeared in the Chicago publication Strong Coffee.