The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax

(Daniel Sweetman/ Recorded Books)

 Maureen Sestito listens to the show on WHYY from Lansdale, Pennsylvania. Years ago, she was working as a nurse when a colleague suddenly died of a brain tumor — like Maureen, she was in her early thirties, with kids. “I thought, that could be me. Have I really done what I wanted to do?” she remembers. Maureen had always wanted to become a doctor, and felt she had missed her chance.

At the time, she was reading The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman, a novel about an elderly woman facing existential despair. Ignoring the reservations of others, Mrs. Pollifax decides to pursue her childhood ambition to become a spy — and quickly finds herself in the CIA. “If she can be a spy at 80 years old,” Maureen resolved, “I can be a doctor. I’m only 32. And that was it.” 

Excerpts from the novel are read by Rae C. Wright.

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