Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman

May 26, 2021

Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman

This is a story about a woman's mental illness, and the effect of that illness on her daughter, Cecelia Rose - but if that puts you off, don't let it. The story begins in Willoughby, Ohio and ends in Savannah, Georgia; it's about suffering, prejudice and lies, but it's also about friendship, solidarity, strong women, and love.

Miss Vidalia Onion 2011

Camille Honeycutt: 1951 Vidalia Onion Queen. CeeCee's mother has never forgotten her early triumph , but now she has married a man 24 years her senior and moved north. CeeCee vaguely remembers her mother's old vitality and joy; she was fun, and she adored her only child. As the years pass, however, Camille's grip on reality starts to loosen. Her husband is rarely home, she yearns for her family in Georgia; she begins to wander the streets in her old prom dresses, her face slathered in inappropriate make up, a tiara on her head. Sometimes she leaves the house wearing nothing at all. She is the laughing stock of the neighbourhood.

At just 12 years old, CeeCee is left to pick up the pieces. She has no friends at school, she has no friends out of school - apart, that is, from her neighbour Mrs Odell, an elderly lady living alone, whose home is the one safe haven CeeCee can run to. There she gardens, bakes and chats; at home she clears up smashed glass, rescues burned pans, puts her mother to bed, and despairs. She also reads a lot of books. She looks up psychosis and finds;

'Genetic inheritance can play an important part in close biological relationships. This is true of both schizophrenia and manic depressive-illness...'

When disaster predictably strikes, CeeCee's father is not up to the job. She loathes him for the lack of support he has given the family, but she is still surprised when up the drive rolls;

'The most beautiful car I'd ever seen....it was a shiny plum red with a white convertible top and a big, gleaming, chrome grill. The afternoon sun sent fireworks of light sparking off the hood ornament - a miniature silver angel with open wings and her arms stretched out in front of her, palms forward, as if she were ready to push aside anything that dared get in her way.'

CeeCee's saviour has arrived, in the shape of her great aunt, Mrs Tallulah Caldwell. Despite her reservations, and her misery at leaving Mrs Odell, CeeCee is soon travelling south with Aunt Tootie to begin her new life in Savannah.

Traditional Savannah home (c) The American Road Trip Company

If this makes the story sound trite it shouldn't, because it certainly isn't. Things do not all go smoothly for CeeCee, but the adventures she has with her new-found family are a joy to read. Aunt Tootie's beautiful house is;

'surrounded by lush gardens and an iron fence that looked like countless yards of black lace.....The house...made of stucco and painted the colour of lemonade, was three stories tall and had lots of arched windows. Wide stone steps stretched high above the street and ended at double front doors'

The food produced by Tootie's formidable housekeeper Oletta is a story in itself, and CeeCee's summer in the South with Tootie and Oletta, her escapades with eccentric, wine-swilling, open-air bath-taking neighbour Thelma Rae Goodpepper, and her visits to Oletta's aunt's Sapphire's care home, change CeeCee's life. But it's not all fun; another neighbour is a racist, judgemental busybody; on a trip to Tybee Island with Oletta and her friends, CeeCee is caught up in a shocking incident of violence; and when Aunt Tootie tries to give CeeCee a garden party to remember, a memory from her past almost destroys her growing happiness.

As the summer draws to a close, an unexpected visit from her father leads to CeeCee re-examining what she had thought to be the truth about both of her parents. And as she faces up to starting a new school in Savannah, she also learns, with the help of an old friend and a new one, to face her fears and embrace her future;

'As the sunlight raced across the brilliant Savannah sky, the day unfolded like a beautiful yet painfully wrapped gift. Momma had left this world and set herself free, and in doing so she had set me free too.'

Beth Hoffman writes beautifully, and Saving CeeCee Honeycutt is a beautiful, enlightening - and often very funny - story, and one that is ultimately full of hope.