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READING GROUP
QUESTIONS
A Special Delivery:
Mother-Daughter Letters From Afar
by Joyce Slayton Mitchell & Elizabeth Dix Mitchell
1. How does reading a book of letters differ from reading a narrative?
2. What were your initial impressions of Joyce? Of Elizabeth? Did they change as you read the book? Did you identify with one more than the other?
3. If you could go to live in another country, which one would you choose? Why? What would your life be like?
4. Did it surprise you that Joyce accepted Elizabeth's decision to live halfway around the world so easily? What are the challenges of keeping a close relationship with someone who is so far away? Are there any benefits?
5. Why does Elizabeth reject marriage so emphatically? Could she have the "spiritual ceremony" that she describes (p. 16) that would result in a legal marriage, or does one preclude the other? Did Joyce give up too easily in trying to persuade Elizabeth to get married? Or are Jimi and Elizabeth better off not being married?
6. How do Joyce's attitudes about pregnancy and childbirth compare to Elizabeth's? In what ways are they similar? How do you account for their differences?
7. Did Elizabeth make the right decision when she insisted on a home birth??
8. Why did Joyce reveal more of her fears about the birth in her letters to Aileen McGregor (pp. 93, 113) than to Elizabeth? What would you do if your child (or any loved one) made a choice that made you fear for their safety or health?
9. In what ways are Joyce and Elizabeth different? In what respects are they similar?
10. Would you like to live as Elizabeth does -- in a beautiful, remote spot, with no neighbors nearby, without a clock in the house, and without a steady source of income? Why or why not?
11. What kind of a life will Elizabeth and Jimi make for their child? Do you agree that "love and joy and happiness, with a good strong base" (p. 17) are enough? What other ingredients might you need to raise a child?
12. Where do you think Elizabeth, Jimi, and their child will be ten years from now?
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