Her Mother’s Hope and Her Daughter’s Dream are Francine Rivers’ latest books. They really need to be read one after the other to get the full effect from this family saga which starts in 1901 in If “Renewing Love” is the story of a woman’s redemption, then these two books tell the story of a family’s redemption. We see how rebellion sets in when a daughter feels rejected and unloved by her parents and we see the Lord’s grace and mercy in restoring relationships, and how He uses situations and circumstances to bring His children back to Him. The story starts with Marta, who is badly abused and even hated by her father. Her mother is a godly woman, who encourages her daughter to become all she can be, and to use every situation and circumstance to better herself. Her mother believes in her, and tells her to never give up believing in her dream. Marta is determined to be free and more than fulfills her mother’s hope. Forced to leave school by her father, even though she was eager to learn and top of her class, blamed for her brother’s failure at school, doomed to the life of a servant, she breaks free with her mother’s blessing. Wherever she is, she learns all she can, and educates herself. She values learning and hard work.
She passes the lessons she has learned the hard way on to her children. Her daughter, Hildemara Rose, is a sickly child and Marta is afraid that she will turn out like her younger sister Elise, who was pampered by her mother and made totally unable to stand up for herself. She practises tough love and treats Hildemara far more harshly than her other children, although she is her favourite. She is waiting for her to stand up for herself and show a bit of spunk. Unfortunately, Hildie doesn’t see it this way and feels she has let her mother down. Unlike Marta, Hildie has a loving father. When Hildie decides to go nursing, her mother is appalled. A nurse is too much like a servant for her liking. Hildie succeeds in her career, but always feels her mother isn’t interested in what she is doing. She meets and marries a doctor and has two children, Charlie and Carolyn.
When Hildie contracts T.B., the disease that killed her mother, Marta is devastated. She is scared that her daughter won’t fight the disease, that she will give up. She moves in and looks after the children, which is the last thing that Hildie wants, but there is no alternative. We see the same vicious circle of rejection setting in. Carolyn is too small to realize that when her mother sends her out of the room and refuses to kiss her, it is so that she won’t contract T.B. Oma Marta takes over the children’s affection, and Hildie is unable to win back Carolyn’s affection when she is well enough to look after her family again. It just shows how important communication is in a family, and that children can easily get the wrong impression when adults fail to explain things properly. In the tug of war between her mother and grandmother, Carolyn falls through the cracks.
When Carolyn comes home pregnant, the whole vicious circle starts again. Hildie takes over May Flower Dawn, who is also led to believe that her mother doesn’t love her. Again there is tremendous jealousy between mother and grandmother – a vying for Dawn’s love. Unlike Hildie and Carolyn, she doesn’t have a loving father, but when Carolyn marries Mitch she has a loving stepfather.
The final reconciliation comes when Faith is born and Carolyn gets her mother and grandmother to really communicate. Faith brings restoration between the generations.
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