WAITING TO FORGET by Sheila Kelly Welch

T.J. and his little sister Angela love their mother, but life with her is dangerous.  Jobs come and go.  Men come and go.  Money and food come and go.  Their mother says she loves them, and T.J. clings to that through all the chaos and turmoil that is life for Angela and him.

There were some happy times.  T.J. remembers going to live with the grandparents he had never met.  Times there were good until grandma got angry with his mother and they had to leave. 

Life when Ray was around was really good.  Ray acted like a real dad.  He spent time with T.J., and Ray was the one who taught little Angela to make the paper birds.  But, one day Ray's parents came saying something about paying for college not for him to shack up with some woman.  They even held up a picture of some girl they said was engaged to Ray.  That was the end of Ray.

Most of what T.J. remembers is bad.  He remembers when their mother left them alone and when the men she brought home were mean.  He remembers missing school because he was "sick" and rarely getting to play outside or having friends like other kids.  Through it all though, their mother supposedly loved them.

WAITING TO FORGET takes readers on a journey through T.J.'s life.  The story flashes back and forth between what he thinks of as THEN and NOW.  The NOW portions offer the promise of better times, but T.J. isn't sure that's possible or if he and Angela even deserve it.  Author Sheila Kelly Welch captures the heart-wrenching emotion of two innocent children who deserve so much more out of life.  I found their story painful yet riveting and their resilience inspiring.