SPOILERS!!!
This is such a nice love story!!! Vinnie and Ellen have gone from being virtual strangers to having some kind of friendship. After the flowers Vinnie gives Ellen, he picks her up as usual to take her to physiotherapy. Yet, unlike other Fridays, she doesn’t ask him to take him home right away but to a nearby pier so that she can do some walking. When they get there, Ellen invites him to walk with her, and they do so in companionable silence, and he even buys her a coffee.
The following Friday Vinnie is very careful about his clothes, which his colleagues and even children notice. When he gets to Ellen’s, she is not there, but she calls him on his phone, and tells him that she has locked herself out. So Vinnie tries to find a way to get into the flat, but when he learns there is no caretaker or ladder, he climbs onto her balcony, using the table on the apartment below as leverage. He manages to reach her balcony, and then he simply opens the door to her. Ellen is thankful for his help, and while he gets ready for her appointment, she offers him coffee. It is while he is in her apartment that they talk. Vinnie explains about Paula and her disease. We get to know that she is bipolar, and not just in this point in the novel but previously, we learn that living with Paula hasn’t been a piece of cake. The woman was manic, almost hyperactive, driving everyone crazy; she didn’t treat Vinnie nice, and I think it was quite stressful for the children as well. Paula also had a thing with one of the guys in Vinnie’s team of five-a-side, and she never denied, but justified herself by telling him that when one doesn’t get something at home, they find it somewhere else. This is another example of manic pace, demanding sex from Vinnie every time. A few months before she left for good, she even tried to kill herself. Now Vinnie admits that her leaving was also a relief because it was very hard to wake up every morning not knowing what mood Paula was going to be in.
Vinnie takes Ellen to her weekly session, and when she leaves her back home, she tells him that she wants to thank him for rescuing her after locking herself out. So she hints that she would like to cook and invite him to dinner one night. Vinnie hesitates, but then he accepts. The following Wednesday he doesn’t tell anybody where he is going, and even though at first he feels awkward and nervous, he gets to enjoy Ellen’s company very much. Vinnie even asks her about her husband, but all she says is that he is not in the picture any longer. I have the hunch that Ryan is dead. Maybe he died in the car accident in which she was also involved and left her with a scar in her face and unable to use her legs well. We know from her letters that Ellen got pregnant, but Ryan’s reception was cold, talking about options. I think that because of the accident she lost her baby as well, and that is why she is going to therapy because she has lost her whole family overnight.
I think the idea of Vinnie and Ellen together is lovely. I think these two people need each other and are lonely. Vinnie has lots of people in his life, but he is actually quite lonely. His daughter really needs helps as she hasn’t dealt with her mother’s abandonment. She has too much grief within her, and her way of coping with her feelings is by rebelling and being vile to her father. Vinnie feels helpless with Kerry, and I can’t blame him. The girl is really hard work, but she needs professional help so that she can deal with the resentment towards her mother, which she projects to her father.
As for Ellen, she is really lonely, with just her mother as company. I think Ellen needs a reason to start living again, and Vinnie’s friendship is already helping her. I hope they can forge a good friendship, and maybe something else.
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