Postscript by Cecelia Ahern

Postscript is the sequel to Cecelia Ahern's best-seller, PS, I Love You, which was published in 2004. In 2007, PS, I Love You was adapted into a film starring Gerrard Butler and Hilary Swank. While P.S, I Love You was one of my favourite novels, to me, the movie never lived up to the book - but do they ever?
Recap of PS, I Love You
At the beginning of Cecelia Ahern's first novel, Holly's husband, Gerry, has died of terminal cancer. He was thirty years old. Holly and Gerry had been together since they were teens. For a year following his death, Gerry leaves Holly a letter each month to challenge her, to help her through this gutwrenching year. He's gone, but a part of him is still with her, guiding her, holding her hand through her grief. Slowly, Holly finds a way to live again.

Postscript Plot
It's seven years after Gerry's death and Holly is interviewed for a podcast to talk about Gerry's letters. The podcast is heard by a group of terminally ill patients who are inspired by her story and ask for Holly's help to leave behind their own letters/videos/scrapbooks for their loved-ones to find after they've gone. Reluctant at first to go back to that dark place in her life, Holly eventually agrees to help the group. She embarks on missions to help leave legacies, including a recipe book from a doting wife to a traditional husband, a treasure hunt for a beloved wife and even a video series for cherished children. As she is drawn in deeper, Holly begins to wonder who the letters are really for.
The most poignant storyline, to my mind, is that of Ginika, a teen mum. Illiterate, Ginika enlists Holly to teach her to write so that she can pen a letter to her precious baby, Jewel. Streetwise and guarded, Ginika does not ask Holly to write the letter for her; Ginika wants to write the letter herself. Holly meets with Ginika three times a week to teach the young mother the ins and outs of the complicated English language, while baby Jewel not will let her mother put her down. Ginika's family have disowned her. Who will care for baby Jewel? Will the child be passed from foster home to foster home? As a reasonably new mother myself, I could not stomach the thought that Ginika would not be there to see her child grow up. The two most heartwrenching passages to read were Ginika's final moments and when Holly reads Ginika's letter to the newly orphaned baby Jewel.
Thoughts
A mother leaving her child behind is heart-rending. The Big C is an evil, relentless disease. I find it hard to believe, in the twenty-first century, and in a supposed "developed" country, that we cannot stop this cruelness. The book wakes you up to our mortality. It made me understand how temporary and delicate and finite everything is. We cannot stop the passage of time. Look at your parents and remember, not long ago they were where you are now. Look at your children think, what a short time ago, that was you as a child. Think then, how quickly you will be at your parent's stage of life and how soon your children will be where you are - how a whole generation will pass. If you are lucky enough to get to where your parents are and to have a lifetime with your babies and your loved ones, will a lifetime be long enough?
Ginika's story touched me. Hold on to your children a little bit tighter. Holly's last letter from Gerry had me. Hold on to your husband a little bit longer. We might be bogged down and overwhelmed by the day-to-day but we are blessed to have the daily grind. If your baby wakes you in the night it means you are lucky to have a beautiful baby to wake you up, and you are fortunate enough to be here for her. If you have a husband to wait for to come home from work when you're drowning in daily tasks and deadlines, then you are lucky enough to have a hardworking partner who does his utmost for his family. If your worries are about the mundane then you are privileged. If you're longing for a big house and holidays in the sun and a live-in helper to pull you out of the bottom of the laundry pile, those things are extra. If you have your health and breath in your lungs and babies to hold and husband to love and a house to clean then you are one of the blessed ones. Hold them and phone your parents and write love letters while you still can. Let those babies you know you are there. If I am lucky, I can write my novel and clean my house when my baby starts school.
Thank you, Cecelia Ahern, for the wake-up call.