Award-winning author Connie Lounsbury expertly weaves nonfiction and fiction together in a story that will have the reader weeping in both sorrow and joy. When Irene’s husband abandons her and their children in the early 1920s she tries, in various ways, to earn an income to support her children. When circumstances make that impossible, her vulnerability is exposed for the world to see and the vultures descend upon her. The neighbor wants her baby; the banker wants her loan repaid; the doctor wants her farm; the judge wants her two little boys; and the town telegrapher just wants her.
Each of the vultures, pillars of their community, have secrets they don’t want others to know, that impact Irene’s life. Long ago, the orphan train had brought to town hate for authority that festered into more hate. Long ago, illnesses carried over into longings and heartbreak that later in life threatened marriages, both present and future. Infidelity and greed abound among fierce longings for love.
Irene, who didn’t want to have children until after she had them, fiercely loves each of her children and tries valiantly to keep them from starving while the community brands her as disreputable. Her love for a childhood sweetheart and a horrible truth that she didn’t want to believe reveal secrets of child abuse and murder. What happened to make the man she loved willing to watch his children starve to death? How can Irene escape the abuse of power against her? What sacrifice must Irene make to keep her family together?
