The Forgotten Seamstress by Liz TrenowNo one believed her. They called her insane. But Maria Romano knows the truth.
Her eyes close and it is 1910 again. She vividly remembers the flutter of her racing heart when she looked into the cool piercing eyes of the handsome man that captured her heart and mind. A poor, naive commoner like herself, summoned to work at Buckingham Palace, would never attract The Prince of Wales. They all insisted it was just a crazy concoction from an imaginative mind. Maria understands the absurdity of it all. Yet fantastic as it sounds, it did happen and the events and heartache that followed still reverberate deep in her soul. So she agrees to tell her story sixty years later.
A young energetic college student turns on the cassette tape and begins to record the words of an old woman scarred from the wounds of days long ago. Maria looks back on her past with a forlorn wistfulness. She smiles and in a husky voice, begins the narration of her life. It is the story of an orphaned child who is summoned to the "Castle" as a seamstress because of her extraordinary talent. Little does she know she is working for royalty. As the story enfolds, she describes herself as an incredibly trusting girl of sixteen who falls in love with a future king. Her innocence results in a mistake that cannot go unpunished but she carries on in spite of the hushed whispers behind her back. With only her sewing to sustain her sanity, she creates a remarkable quilt, a "patchwork of life" made of the finest fabrics and lovingly stitched with nimble fingers that tell a tale of love and hope rather than bitterness and regret. Eventually, because of her unforgivable error in judgement, she is sent away to live in a dark, depressing mental asylum, where she endures cruel and brutal treatment. Robbed of her future and dreams, this fortress of oppression cannot take away Maria's strength and determination. Friends never abandon her. Maria survives.
Generations later, in 2008, Caroline Meadows finds the quilt in her mother's attic, an inheritance from her Granny Jean. Hidden in the intricate pattern is a mysterious message. When her friend reveals that the silks used in the quilt are rare and date back to the royal family, Caroline has an overpowering urge to begin a relentless search to uncover the truth behind this piece of faded cloth. What she discovers about her grandmother's life is amazing. And somehow the circle always comes back to Maria Romano.
This is a beautifully written novel that will fill the reader with emotion. The past and the present are artfully combined, and each chapter reveals another piece of an astounding puzzle. Written by British author Liz Trenow and set in London, this work of historical fiction reveals disturbing facts about mental hospitals during the World War I era. This gifted author writes a compelling tale combining fact with fiction based on many of her own experiences.
Like a haunting melody, it just might play over and over again in your heart and mind long after you finish the last page.
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