Raymond W. Hogan

The Lifeguard Raymond W. Hogan

As Willa Cather simply states in her novel, "Where there is great love, there are always miracles." The Lifeguard opens with Rita Wishwood mourning a tragic loss late Christmas Eve. Grief fuels a festering rage. Life has betrayed her. Overwhelmed, she lashes out, wheeling the contents of the counter across the kitchen. Suddenly her world freezes, locking Rita in a stark timeless landscape. Rita's life is paused. Yet how? And why? The answers lie in Rita's recent past. Three weeks before Christmas on his drive to work, Rita's ex-husband, Neville Wishwood accidently hits a pedestrian. The accident incites a loss of memory in the stranger and deeming himself responsible he takes the amnesiac into his home to recuperate, now renamed Phil by Neville's eccentric upstairs tenant, Dell. As Neville juggles his various life issues; his job, his workplace nemesis, his ex-wife Rita, the newly named Phil settles into the Wishwood home, joining Neville's Alzheimer's afflicted father, Neville's young son, Dewey and Dell. Together they form an odd alliance and go about their daily lives with baffling, often mystifying results. It soon becomes evident that Phil is no ordinary man and his sudden entry into Neville's life, no accident. But who is he? In searching for answers, Neville unravels Phil's secret and with it, the miraculous potential of love.