The Life She Could Have Lived Quotes

“She just thought about what she’d had in the past, what she had now. It was easy to forget to be grateful. It was easy to think about roads not taken. But the fact was, all the small and big decisions she’d made had led her here. And if she could go back, and change something, everything else might fall apart. Life was like a house of cards, in that way. At once fragile and unbelievable. Why hadn’t she been able to see it before? She was exactly where she should be, exactly who she should be.”
― Laura Pearson, The Life She Could Have Lived

“They had lots of years ahead. And they were settled, in their work and their homes. But more than that, they were settled in their bodies and their personalities. They knew who they were, what they wanted. If they’d had that chance, years before, it was quite possible that one or other of them would have messed it up, somehow. And then they would have nothing. ‘It is,’ she said. ‘It is enough.”
― Laura Pearson, The Life She Could Have Lived

“time, thinking about Ben, about Steve. About falling in love, and how much it could end up hurting, but how it was worth it for those moments of pure joy. That feeling.”
― Laura Pearson, The Life She Could Have Lived

“Everything was connected to everything else. You couldn’t just pull one strand out without the whole thing coming unravelled.”
― Laura Pearson, The Life She Could Have Lived

“We’re all just as messy as each other. Some of us hide it well, but you don’t get to our age without having been fucked up by something or other.”
― Laura Pearson, The Life She Could Have Lived

“There were gaps inside her, there were things she ached for, and sometimes she thought they’d been caused by motherhood, and sometimes she felt like motherhood filled and soothed them.”
― Laura Pearson, The Life She Could Have Lived

“she’d fallen in love with him, how he’d shown her how to be a mum. ‘I couldn’t love either of you any more than I do,’ she said. Thomas didn’t say anything. But he didn’t let her go for a long time.”
― Laura Pearson, The Life She Could Have Lived

“She wanted to have something for after they were grown up and gone, something more than an empty house and regrets.”
― Laura Pearson, The Life She Could Have Lived

“She wanted to work, to feel she had a purpose beyond being a mum.”
― Laura Pearson, The Life She Could Have Lived

“wasn’t that what every woman wanted? Someone who had her back, who supported her and gave her space and time to be the best person she could be?”
― Laura Pearson, The Life She Could Have Lived

“it’s not what I want. But I feel guilty for that. And I just feel like my whole life is about him now, and I’ve lost sight of me. But is that selfish? Don’t all mums do this without complaining?”
― Laura Pearson, The Life She Could Have Lived

“And yet. She felt like she’d forgotten who she was. And worse than that, she felt like she’d stopped being herself entirely.”
― Laura Pearson, The Life She Could Have Lived