Ebb Tide

Ebb Tide is the third and final book in The Caines Island Stories. It covers US history from 2016 to 2022. Like previous novels in the series, Callie serves as the lens to explore US history: agism, shifts in the relationship between parents and children, community as family, the US healthcare system, mental health, minority exclusion and the government's efforts to shrink women's rights..

Callie struggles to accept the fact that she is getting older. At the same time, she notices she is often overlooked by others in favor of men or younger women in a group. She and a few friends start a group to encourage young women to advocate for themselves. When the news begins discussing the possibility of the Supreme Court's overturning Roe v Wade, her group begins attending rallies and escorting women into clinics where protestors attempt to intimidate them.

COVID accentuates the cracks in the US healthcare system and the immense strain it places on healthcare professionals. Kim's clinic is an example of what healthcare should be, a place where all needs are met: physical and mental health, housing and food security.

Mary' becomes a functioning member of society. Her story is an example of what can happen when a person with a psychiatric diagnosis receives the right assistance.

The community activism of Callie, Max and Luke highlight the continued struggles of minorities against profiling and mass shootings. The accounts in the book are fictionalized versions of incidents that actually occurred.

Both Callie and Kim serve as examples of how the relationship between parents and children shifts as the parent ages. Each face the lesson that parents need to make their own decisions, even when the decision might lead to possible harm.

Caines Island has escaped the eye of developers for decades. Its inhabitants formed a deep bond, initially as a way to survive on an island with few government services. People were accepted for who they were. They banded together to rebuild after hurricanes, to celebrate births and deaths. In doing so, the island became a family made up of individual families. All of which wanted to protect the island.