Helmi (short for Wilhelmina) is only a few months shy of turning 100 years old. But before she invites Old Man Death into her parlor, she is determined to recount the highlights of her life since her birth in 1920. Being the oldest of ten children, Helmi is the person upon whom her siblings depend, and she takes her position seriously with a combination of iron will and a sense of humor.
She was born in the eastern Oklahoma panhandle where the dustbowl left the earth infertile. When she was almost four years old, she and her family moved to Isabella County, Michigan, where her German-born father started a dairy farm. She became a veterinarian—a bold step into a male-dominated profession in the early years of WWII. She found a job in Chippewa County in Michigan’s upper peninsula where she began a new life filled with great joy, profound loss, and incomparable love.
