What's Left Unsaid Quotes
"She wasn’t trying to impress Monty Martin—she was trying to survive him until Mamaw Mable recovered from her fall and Hannah figured out what to do with the rest of her suddenly sidetracked life."
"That night she ended up telling her mom the tears were because she missed her dad, when they were also for 'that asshole Alex,' as her mom liked to call him."
"It was what made her take the El home on her lunch break and find 'Max' and Alex enjoying some afternoon delight."
"He said it like he wasn’t sure she could handle any assignments, much less the two completely inane tasks now on her plate."
"She could go home to Chicago and reclaim her spot on her mother’s couch, where she’d been hiding for the past six months since her dad was sent home with hospice care to die in his own bed."
"But Mamaw made her feel loved unwaveringly, and Hannah needed some of that in her life."
"And though her friends were sympathetic and unified in a tide of anger and outrage at Alex at first, as weeks turned to months, and anger turned to sadness, which turned to despair, her friends dropped out of the picture one by one."
"But foolish girl that I was, I didn’t know what death was other than something that happened to everyone I truly loved."
"And the purpose of scanning the scraps of paper, letters to the editor, reference materials, old photos, and more was to one day put them online for public access, as so many other newspapers had done over the years."
"If I don’t find anything today, I’ll ask for a new assignment. But then every night when she walked up the stairs, she knew—there was no giving up."
"But life without a mother had taught me to be strong, and even at nine years old, I was brave."
"If you look too closely at any life, you’re gonna find tragedy."
"I didn’t try to rescue myself. It was the closest to freedom I’d felt in a long time."
"Depression can be hereditary, and with your family history, I wouldn’t be surprised if, once you lost the structure of your micromanaged childhood in college, the symptoms became more difficult to bear."
"It was hard to explain depression to someone who hadn’t experienced it. It was like explaining salt without using the word salty—pretty much impossible."
"The idea was a bit frightening but also exhilarating, like she was walking across a tightrope she’d traversed a million times but they’d forgotten to put out the net."
"I missed my momma in those days more than ever."
"I wanted to know what Evelyn’s life felt like, and this was one way to find out."
"Not every school year was represented. It looked as though, when photography was far rarer, that the school had invested in professional photos every few years."
"That’s when she saw it, a photograph from 1930. Hannah scanned each face, confident that she’d be able to sense which one was Evelyn."
"The faces took on even less detail up close, like an ink drawing that had been left out in the rain, making the lines bleed into each other."
"She wasn’t smiling, but she looked like she wanted to smile, like the kind of girl who would swing over a river and fall in love with a boy at first sight."
"Well, not exactly. Ninety years is more like it," Hannah corrected, not glancing back at the picture, finding the stranger more interesting at the moment.
"When was the last time she’d noticed a detail like that?"
"Ten years is a long time to gloss over," she said, half under her breath, nervously checking the room for an approaching security guard or police officer.
"The way journalists documented and reported that war was revolutionary. Heroic."
"I’m Hannah Williamson, from the Chicago Tribune. I’m writing a story about—"
"I guess I’m pretty forgettable, Auntie. Better tell Mark. Could be an issue with the constituents."
"I promise I will get to the point the best I can. Writing to you has brought a light back into my life that I thought was gone forever."
"But what she doesn’t understand is that there are so many pieces that come together, and I only remember some of them at some times and others of them at other times."
"To give up hope entirely is to throw away your ticket to a better tomorrow."
"Life isn’t very fair to very many of us—that’s a universal truth—and I know it gets harder every single day with this Depression going on."
"Mother had never paid any sort of individual attention to me before. I felt unnerved but didn’t dare stand against her since she’d been so sweet about Harry and the trip."
"You have expensive tastes, Evelyn. Mr. Fred can give you those things. Harry will give you nothing but babies and swollen ankles."
"Just because you’re rich and a man doesn’t give you the right to ruin some poor girl’s life."
"My youthful beauty was a fistful of dollars that would blow away with time, and I knew it."
"I feel like I can tell you anything," he said to me, scooting closer to my corner of the picnic blanket, my heart beating in my chest.
"I’m glad you are making friends, but I think you might be careful about giving him the—the wrong idea."
"I don’t think it’s right for me to say nothing. Guy and Rosie are important to me."
"I can see that Mr. Franklin and his girl have found a special place in your life."
"But I loved Harry. And Mr. Fred made me feel nervous and funny."
"Sometimes one person’s mistakes set off a shock wave of devastation in the lives of those around them."
"This couldn’t be the end. She’d come here to take care of Mamaw."
"I hope you’re okay. I will fix this. I promise."
"Everything was going to be okay, Hannah listened, but she didn’t agree."
"Happiness is not always guaranteed, even when you get what you want."
"Just being was enough, and that was the ultimate soft place, where falling wasn’t crashing but diving into a waiting embrace."
"That smile wasn’t for nothing. Don’t be shy, darlin’. I can tell you are sweet on him."
"I’m an old woman, Hannah. Now is the only time I have to talk about such things."
"I think what I’m intending to say is—when you’re taught something is dangerous for so long, it’s hard to unthink it."
"But I do know that I respect the hell out of you for being willing to try a new perspective."
"It’s not fair that no one even knows she exists. It’s not fair that the Dawsons have thrown money around for decades to hide the fact."
"You have made me so damn proud, Hannah girl. And I know your daddy would agree with me."
"I think a lot of people would like to hear this story from you."