Catherine Bellizzi

The 86-Year-Old Orphan Catherine Bellizzi

Tessie won the prize. A long life. Why didn't she always feel like a winner? She had led a charmed life. She was young and beautiful, shiny and new, once. Had the world at her feet. She would walk into a room and every head would turn. Now people avert their eyes, especially when they see her wheelchair. She didn't plan on becoming an old woman, but here it was. Sure she had graying hair and wrinkles now, but were those such terrible things to have? Why couldn't people just let her age? Why couldn't she let herself age? Follow Tessie from Brooklyn, to career, to family and finally to a new life in Arizona. She always felt that you should bloom where you're planted and that's what she intends to do. Can she make a new life for herself at this age and in this place with new love, new friends and new family?