And I Thought 40 Was 80 Years of Trying to Get It Right follows the author's lifethrough eight decades in a series of vignettes describing her growth fromtoddler to teenager to adult, and on. Allyene Palmerdescribes the inward struggle to cope with divorce, remarriage, and the meldingof two families of children and young adults into a cohesive new family.This book tells of the spiritualgrowth of the writer, as she 'stumbles her way' through theunexpected pitfalls of life. Experiences described in the book are funny,poignant and sometimes heart-breaking, and they finally lead to a statement offaith. She says, 'What I know now is that, although I stumbled blindlythrough the greatest part of my life, God has loved and protected me.'Interwoven into the stories asthe writer grows up and grows old, there is a sense of an emerging spiritualitythat culminates in a firm conviction that she has never been outside that loveand protection., regardless of the pitfalls anderrors.
