Confessions of a Catholic Child - Paperback

by Elizabeth Appell (Author)

Confessions of a Catholic Child is a comedic drama about Regina Fredrickson, 70ish, a Catholic woman struck with terminal cancer and agonizing pain, and who is struggling with the idea of committing a mortal sin by offing herself. Hers is an unexamined life in the face of death. With the help of her old friend, Early Times and a generous prescription of morphine, Regina begins to hallucinate and comes face-to-face with her own life at critical stages. She does battle with her vital, sexual self in her mid-thirties who wants to live, softens when she meets herself at her First Holy Communion, cavorts with a past lover, confronts an aborted child, comes to an understanding with her dead parents who appear in a bourbon bottle and has an unusual audience with an outrageous Pope. Her apparitions, humorous and poignant as they are, teach her two important lessons: "Take responsibility and forgive yourself." After this raucous, often painful night of reflection, Regina is able to leave the baggage she has collected over the course of her life and steps through death's door peacefully and with great confidence, spouting her mother's philosophy: "Always wear clean underwear."