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Estranged for their fatehrs first stroke some 17 years earlier, Lee and Bessie lead separate lives in separate states. Lees son, Hank, finds himself committed to a mental institution after setting fire to his mothers condo.
His younger brother, Charlie, seems unfazed by his brothers eccentricities or his mothers seeming disinterest. When Lee comes to the ayslum to spring Hank for a week in Florida so that he can be tested as a possible bone marrow donor for Bessie, Hank is incredulous. I didnt even know you had a sister, he says. Remember, every Christmas, when I used to say Well, looks like Aunt Bessie didnt send us a card again that year?
Oh yeah, Hank says. Meanwhile, Marvin, the two wmoens bedridden father, has been dying for the past twenty years. Hes doing it real slow so I dont miss anything, Bessie tells Dr.
Wally.
In Bessies rgeular doctors absence, it has fallen to Dr. Wally to inform Bessie that she has leukemia and will die without a bone marrow transplant. This prceipitates the two sisters uneasy reunion.
In Marvins room, Bessie cares for her fathers every need.
In Lees eyes, the sacrifice Bessie has made is too great and realizing the old mans welfare will fall to her if Bessie dies, Lees first instnict is to look for a nursing home.
In a few months, Ill have my cosmotology degree, she says. My life is just coming together; Im not going to give it all up, right now! As frist Lee is tested and then the boys for the compatibility of their marrow with Bessies, the girls take stock of their lives and rediscover the meaning of family.
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