Who Would You Choose With the Gift of 15 Minutes?

Story for the Week

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Happy Heavenly Birthday, Mom 💖

If you could choose to spend 15 minutes with someone you’ve lost, who would you choose, when would you choose, and why? That is the premise of the book in today’s review. There are caveats, of course. You can’t leave the room. You can’t tell the person you’re with that they’ve died. And you can’t change history. You also can’t tell them that you have only 15 minutes.

For anyone who has lost someone they love, this could be the ultimate gift. But how do you choose? When I mentioned this idea to Corinne, she immediately said her dad because she would, of course, choose her dad. But would it be possible to find the right 15 minutes that might allow time with her dad and my mom in the same room?

We lost Dennis much too young…just a couple months after his 61st birthday. We knew we would lose him after his cancer diagnosis with no option for surgery. At first, we didn’t know how long, but we knew. When he went into the hospital a couple of weeks before he passed, he kept insisting it was the end. (I disagreed.) He made phone calls to people he hadn’t talked to in years. He made amends with people he had been estranged from.

Dennis came home for a couple of days, but when he went back to the hospital the last time, his doctor told us to expect only a matter of days. I have said before that it was a punch in the gut…and it also gave us time. We made more phone calls. Friends and family visited him in the hospital. We stayed with him and talked to him and told him we loved him. We were able to say all of the things we wanted to say.

It was a heartbreaking loss, and yet nothing went unsaid.

With my mom six months later, it was sudden and unexpected. At 79, Mom had not been feeling great. She had a lot of pain. We tried to convince her to get in to see a new doctor. I remember being at my parents’ house a few days before. She was cranky, but we finally convinced her to let me schedule something with my primary. When I prepared to head home, I knew that she was annoyed, but I was also happy we were on the right track. I gave her a hug and a singsong, “I love you, Mommy.”

I’m sure we spoke in the days after that, but phone calls were typically about everyday things. We didn’t have deep conversations over the phone. I’m glad that I told her I loved her the last time I saw her. But would I have said or done anything differently if I had known I wouldn’t see her again?

Mom had a faith like nothing I’ve ever seen, and I know she is at peace and keeping an eye out for all of us. I talk to her and Dennis, and I am not above asking them and Dennis’s dad for favors. 😉 I also know Mom is getting into trouble with Dennis because they were two peas in a pod and loved picking on each other.

But I also hope she knew how much I appreciated having her as a mom and how much she taught me about being a mom. I wish I had had a chance to tell her all the things I loved about her. We had that time with Dennis, so while I would absolutely want another 15 minutes with him, I would rather be able to pick a time when we were all together…so I could have them both.

When I saw the release date for this book, I knew I had to save it for today no matter what. As much as I have moved titles around (a lot) in the last several months, this one has never wavered. Mom would have been 85 today. What better way to wish her a happy birthday than to wish for 15 minutes more to tell her we love her?

Book Review

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
5 Stars for Fifteen Minutes by Amanda Prowse

149 pages
Publisher: Lionhead Media
Publication Date: April 13, 2026
Purchased on Amazon.

Publisher’s Description

It gets us all in the end, time.

What if I told you that time was not as unyielding as you might have believed? What if I told you it was in fact a fluid, bendable thing and that there are gaps in it, if you know where to look.

Interested? You should be.

What if I told you that the makers of time made a small error, an oversight if you will that allows us to give time back.

Fifteen minutes to be precise – gifted to the most deserving, where they get to spend precious time with someone they have lost.

A chance to right a wrong, ask that burning question or maybe just be held, one last time…

I guess the question is, who would you choose or more importantly when?

A note from Amanda Prowse:

I think like anyone who has suffered loss, I have been a little preoccupied with the things I wish I’d said, the questions I should’ve asked and often have imagined conversations with my loved one.

I take great comfort from the thought that I could snatch a brief window of time with them, look them in the eye, take in the detail of their face and reassure them that everyone they left behind is doing fine.…

This was where the idea of my new novella Fifteen Minutes came from.

Here is the dedication:

“This is a fanciful story no doubt. And it’s one I dedicate to every single one of us who has lost someone we love.

When grief hits me hard, often at the most unexpected of moments, and I miss them with a pain that is visceral, I imagine what it might be like to have 15 minutes with them.

To tell them one more time that I love them, to share news of our family and to remind myself of the small details about them that have started to fade.

It’s an idea that brings me great comfort, the idea that I might, could see them just once more. Now, wouldn’t that be something…”

************

Main Characters:

Chen – a master of time
Violet Katherine Drummond – 98-year-old grandmother who lives in Vauxhall, London
Lewis Mark Noble – 36-year-old forklift operator who lives in Henbury, Bristol
Ruby Jade Brown – 23-year-old HR admin for a university who lives in Harborne, Birmingham
Verity Louise Clarke – 36-year-old general practitioner who lives in Morningside, Edinburgh
Benjamin Stokes-Rattigan – 30-year-old businessman who lives in Poole, Dorset
Mikey Charles Ferwin – 47-year-old laborer who lives in Thornton, Liverpool

Trigger warning: grief, suicide, cancer, child loss

I always know when I read something by Amanda Prowse to plan to have a lot of feelings. I did not expect to find myself tearing up reading in the car waiting for my daughter’s choir concert. But there I was…and that speaks to the power of Prowse’s writing.

This new novella tells the stories of six people chosen by Chen, a master of time, to be offered the gift of 15 minutes. He greets all of them by name, which would put anyone off when approached by a stranger. He tells all of them that he has never and would never tell a lie. All receive the same instructions:

“This Saturday, in the hour before midnight, you have the chance to spend fifteen minutes with someone who has gone before you. All you have to do is stay in your chair, close your eyes and, when you open them, it will be a repeat of the time you have chosen to live again with them when they were alive, just as it was.

There are some rules, very important rules. You can’t leave the room, or you will find yourself back home. You mustn’t tell the person you are with that they have died or give them any information that you think might prevent their death. It would make no difference.

You cannot change history, can’t undo the thing that has been done, but that kind of disclosure can have the most distressing and disastrous effect on them at a time when they are ailing, oblivious or at peace. It would be cruel, the cruellest. Also they cannot know that they are only there for fifteen minutes. If you breach any of these conditions, they will disappear immediately, and you will lose all that remains of your time.”

All six believe at first that Chen is a lunatic. But what if? Who wouldn’t want to believe? Who would take the chance of not sitting in that chair with their eyes closed? They have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

The book opens and closes with Chen explaining who he is, the importance of making the right choice in regard to who and, more importantly, what moment in time. Each chapter that follows introduces a character and shows us their choice and the agonizing circumstances of their loss. But each chapter brings with it the peace of saying what needs to be said, asking the unanswered questions, saying “I love you” one last time.

At just under 150 pages, this is a quick read, but it definitely won’t be easy. You will feel every emotion so incredibly deeply. Prowse excels at capturing the perfect descriptions of how her characters feel…of capturing the emotions we all feel.

“That was the thing about grief. It wasn’t rational, wasn’t linear, and wasn’t fair. It was instead a terrible journey that he, like most people, had been unprepared to travel, even though he tried to ready himself for it as Jane’s health faded and her death went from a terrible, unthinkable thing to a certainty.”
“They don’t tell you, do they, how it’s the small things that are actually the big things. These quiet moments. They’re what shape us, what bind us, aren’t they?”
“He figured it was important, a reminder that life went on. Whether you wanted it to or not.”

You will find yourself wishing that masters of time existed, because what if?

“Don’t fear death. Don’t be afraid. It isn’t always the neat goodbye you think it is, because in the future at one hour to midnight, someone might choose you.” And wouldn’t that be amazing? 🥲

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