What greater loss can a mother experience than losing a child? And add to that grief the knowledge she really didn’t know her son at all after his death from HIV. Ellen Bennett takes on these themes in her new novel, Letters to Corey (Cojinito Press, 2024). It’s the story of a young man dying from what was known in the 1980’s – the time in which this story is set – as “the gay plague” – and the stigma that surrounds it.
Talking about the book’s main character, Corey’s mother Risa, Bennett says: “I think Risa leads such a perfectly charmed life. She’s a perfect wife and mother, has this perfect husband, has these perfect kids, lives in this beautiful, upcountry bedroom community of Manchester, Massachusetts, where really, everything should be perfect. And when it’s not—it has to be hidden quickly.”
Risa must face losing her son to HIV, and as he falls ill, she learns her son’s secret—he’s gay. Corey hides that part of himself until he leaves home for college, then fully falls into his new life, eventually meeting Michael, the love of his life. The revelation is shocking to Risa and forces her to face her own biases, and those of other family members. After her son’s passing, her grief is many-layered and mixed with guilt when she comes to understand that, by focusing on her son, she has neglected her daughter, Rachel. Healing comes through meetings with a therapist named Alice and the letters that she writes to Corey after his death.
“[Risa] felt that she knew him so well,” Bennett says. “She felt she knew him in and out. But she didn’t. And that was another layer of grief to get through that she never will—again, there’s that word ‘never’—she’ll never know that part of him.”
Ellen Bennett lives in Battle Creek, Michigan. She is now working on a prequel to Letters to Corey, in Corey’s voice. Bennett will be at the Battle Creek Community Foundation Building, 32 West Michigan Avenue, Suit 1, in Battle Creek on Thursday, March 7, from noon to 2 p.m. to sign books and speak with readers.
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