Their Time and Mine

In a search to discover what people and events made Aaron Lankster who he is at the present time, he retells events before his birth that helped shape who his parents were. He then moves on to examine the lives of his close family, and how their dailey struggles witih poverty and inner demons affected him, as well as the sacrifice and indurance they went through in their endeaver to raise him the best they could. Eventually his parents' fighting grew worse and more frequent, and the stress grew so high that they divorced, each struggling for years to reestablish their lives, all the while passing their son between one broken home and another. The mother finds happiness with the marriage of another man, but the father continues to search until the day he dies, on September 12th, 2001. Shortly before the father's death, Lankster's mother has a child, and then two years later another, causing another shift in his life as he struggles to adjust to two new children and a strained relationship with his step-father. The story finishes with Lankster coming to terms with his new family. Set in rural illinois from the early 1990's until the late 2000's.

Brainstorming
Twin's death, impact on parents
father, mother working hard jobs
father's death
bitter grandmother who pushes everybody away
Mother's marriage
strained relationship with step-father
two little sisters causing stress
teachers who influenced my thinking
Loving aunts and uncles and summers spent with them