As Philadelphia emerges from disease, so too the Bright family must emerge from their own personal tragedies. This baby is the light in their dark tunnel. It does when Maggie finds a baby and saves him from certain death. You have to believe that in the depths of a horrific disease, something will soon change. Just when you think this family can’t bear any more sadness, another layer is added, yet you keep reading because you have to believe there is hope for each of them. You would think a story of war and a flu that took 12,000 lives in one city would be too full of sadness to read. There is word of a devastating flu moving swiftly through the city, but no one realizes the tragedies that lie ahead for them as bodies start to pile up outside their door. Pauline is left behind to run the funeral home with Uncle Fred. As the family begins to adjust to living with Uncle Fred, to the dead bodies in the other side of the house, and the hustle and bustle of the city, their father decides to go help during the war efforts. Willa, the youngest, isn’t happy with all the rules in this new house and doesn’t understand why her family had to leave the countryside, her grandparents and live in a funeral home. Maggie, the slightly younger caretaker of her siblings isn’t afraid of what is behind the doors in the embalming room. Evelyn, the bright teenager who is thrilled by the huge library in Philadephia. Pauline and her three daughters tell their family’s story.

What she doesn’t know is how surrounded by death she and her family will be. This fairly new idea of funeral parlors and embalming is unheard of in their rural area, but Pauline is no longer afraid of death and has this desire to be closer to it. Pauline and her husband decide to join her husband’s uncle in the funeral home business. It’s January 1918 and the Bright family has just buried their sweet infant, Henry, after an incurable heart condition.

Each chapter is told from a different character’s perspective which gives the reader a broad view of how one small decision can change the trajectory of a family forever. Even though this tale of a family in Philadephia suffers greatly and tragic events fill the pages, I was still drawn to this story.

As a fan of Susan Meissner, I had no doubt that her tale of WWI and the crippling Spanish Flu would be a page-turning tale.

As bright as heaven by susan meissner