Joan Sowards's Reviews > The Route

We can't begin to understand the challenges of aging and the aches of growing old until we have an elderly person in our life. Gale Sears' The Route gives insight, touches our heart, makes us ponder on the these years of retirement that might not be as joyous as we'd hope. She also makes the point that our attitude determines a lot of how we deal with it, and how it deals with us.

The Route is a different kind of story--no mystery, only love stories in retrospect--no car chases. The story's true promise is that the reader, when finished, will have a bit more understanding of humankind.

Carol, a middle-aged wife and mother who has taken on a Thursday route to deliver meals says: "The fellowship I've shared over the months with these scrappy older folks has elevated my perspective on what I once considered to be the dastardly process of getting old."

In the beginning of the story, Carol is pondering the meaning of life. On a trip to the grocery store to find some energizing dark chocolate, she sees a sign asking for volunteers to deliver meals to the elderly--and that is where her adventure begins.