Book Clubs Are the Best

I had the pleasure of speaking to a book club last week about my book These Healing Hills. Such fun. And in an odd coincidence, at practically the same time I was talking to the Branches Book Club at the Middletown United Methodist Church, the book chat group at the Indian River City United Methodist Church in Florida was talking about the same book. Estelle who led the meeting had some wonderful ideas to make her book presentation come to life and she’s given me permission to share about their meeting.

To begin she read Laura Frantz’s endorsement since that echoed her own thoughts about the story. Then she copied one of my interviews off the internet (I don’t know which one) and choose two of the book chat ladies she knew might enjoy play acting and asked them to read it as if it were a play.

Then Estelle had copied quotes from These Healing Hills on index cars with a thought at the top. Each lady was given a card to read aloud with others encouraged to comment before the next card was read. So here are some of the quotes she chose.

USEFUL
Built strong, Grandma Howard used to say. Her grandmother told Francine she was pretty enough, but a person didn’t want to be only for pretty like a crystal bowl set on a shelf folks were afraid to use. Better to be a useful vessel ready to be filled with the work the Lord intended for her. Back in her neighborhood, Francine had felt like a cracked bowl somebody had pitched aside. Better to be a useful vessel ready to be filled with the work the Lord intended for her. Back in her neighborhood, Francine had felt like a cracked bowl somebody had pitched aside.

MOUNTAINS
His mother told him the mountains sent tendrils up out of the ground to wrap around a man’s ankles and keep him tied to the place.

In the mountains, dark could fall quickly like a woolen blanket dropped over the hills. Other times, night slipped in and settled down over the trees and houses like a mother gently tucking a cover around a sleeping child.

GRANNY EM
Granny Em told Fran she liked being high where she could just pitch her troubles out the window and let them roll clear to the hollow, never to be seen again.

After a couple of weeks, Granny Em climbed back up to her cabin that Ben and Woody had repaired to keep out the winter winds.
When Fran checked on her, a stack of wood was by the front door. Jars of food filled a shelf in her cabinet. Fresh lye soap was beside a new wash pan, and Silky had the run of the house.

MOUNTAIN TALK
She smiled up at him. ‘The edge of dark. I love the way you say things here.’
‘It’s just talk to folks up here.’
‘I suppose so, but to my ears it sounds poetic.’

I knew that girl lost her notching stick.”
“Notching stick?”
“What she used to count up the months.”

I’ll just head on shanks’ mare and see if I remember the trail home.

Picture used with permission of the Frontier Nursing University.

Midwives: brought-in girls
Babies were brought in the saddlebag.
Birth: She was punishing real bad.
Midwives were there to catch babies.

RHYTHM
“You jest need to learn the mountains. Remember that rhythm I told you about some time back when you was stuck on that swinging bridge.”

Guess you need to learn to use your ears too. Ev’rything has music. Horse hooves. Wind in the trees. Water in the crick. That’s rhythm.

PRAYER
She remembered asking Grandma Howard once the best time to pray. Her grandmother had said, “There’s no right or wrong time. Anytime can be the best time. Or all the time. Me, I’m partial to walking prayers.”
“Walking prayers?” That had been a puzzle to Fran.
“Those a body can say while she’s busy doing what has to be done. Like when I’m walking to the barn or the garden. Grabbing minutes with the Lord. His children don’t have to set up appointments for him to pay attention. He’s always ready to bend down his ear to us.”

SINGING
That was easier to do when she was talking like a nurse instead of singing about frogs going courting.

Lurene must have felt the sorrow trailing along with them. With typical mountain woman spirit, she whispered to Ira. “Sing for little Lenny. I reckon I don’t have the strength right now, but I want fun in his ears.”
“What you want me to sing, li’l darling?”
“How about that elephant song?”

“Becca gasped. “Ma, sing my baby here.”
“Surely I can do that.” Mrs. Locke leaned close to Becca under the quilts.
“Toora, loora, loora. Toora, loora, li.”

LOST
That sounded like something Grandma Howard would tell her. The Lord has his mighty hand on your shoulder, child. Trust him to guide you to the paths you need to walk.
“But does the Lord know how easy I get lost?” Fran spoke the words out loud as if her grandmother could hear her.
It wasn’t hard to imagine her grandmother’s answer to that. You might be confused on how to get to some place, but with the good Lord beside you, you’re never lost. He’ll hold a light to your path, just like the Bible says.

CHILDREN
Children were a poor man’s riches. Mrs. Breckinridge had told Fran that when she stopped by to visit the center last week. She’d come to give Fran the details about her trip to Lexington to take her final exam to be a fully qualified midwife. Then she’d talked to Fran about her future with the frontier nurses.

RULES
Mrs. Breckinridge had a rule for her nurses not to talk politics, religion, or moonshine. Mountain cures might be added on to that, except as nurses they had to know what doses their patients had tried before they were called in. While it was easy enough to dismiss the black hen cure or putting hair clippings under a rock to keep away headaches, other cures like peppermint tea for an upset stomach had merit.

SURVIVAL
We got shucky beans hanging ev’rywhere. Up in the attic. Round on the porch. Looks something like the way folks in some places string up Christmas pretties, but the beans ain’t for pretty. It takes plenty to feed our bunch.

WORRY
What was it his pa used to say when Ben started worrying a problem like a dog licking a sore? “You don’t have to know the last step. Just the first one. You and the good Lord can figure out the rest of it on the way.”

ACCEPTANCE
“Your pa was better at knowing answers from the Scripture. Me, I can’t answer for the Lord. I learnt a long time back to accept whatever comes my way. Best savor the good and bear up under the bad. There ain’t no changin’ none of it.”

CHORES
Hospital had couriers to help with chores.

Locals: could get yearly subscriptions for Frontier Nursing Service by helping out with chores at District stations

Midwives were expected to milk cows, care for horses and chickens, grow vegetables, can, wash clothing, etc.

CONFUSION
But I do have something my grandmother told me once. When things are the most confused in our lives, that’s when the Lord can work best.”
“I don’t like confusion. I like things laid out in straight rows with everybody knowing which rows belong to them.”
“But life is rarely that way. We make squiggles and turns and sometimes things work out and sometimes they don’t. But either way the Lord has a plan and a purpose.”

WORK – BEN
He hadn’t told anybody about considering medicine as his life’s work. Best see if he could take the first step down the row, as his pa used to tell him, instead of wanting to skip to the end. If it was meant to happen, the Lord would open up a path. Another of his pa’s sayings.

FORGIVENESS
Ben didn’t think Homer Caudill was sorrowful about anything he’d done. He glanced down at the Bible, where it had fallen open to Colossians 3. His father had underlined verse 13. Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. Ben ran his finger over the verse. It’s not that easy, Pa. He could almost hear his father speaking inside his head. Ain’t nobody ever promised easy.

That was a great sampling of things from the story and showed how hard Estelle worked on her presentation to her book club. At the end one of the members read a biography of Mary Breckinridge. Estelle also printed out pictures of Wendover and the Hyden Hospital. She says they ran out of time before they got to my discussion questions. I can understand why, but her cards with quotes from the book surely opened up plenty of discussion about the story. Wish I could have been there to hear their thoughts.

I was there to hear the thoughts of the Branches Book Club in Middletown. Such fun to be with them. Such fun to get a review of the Indian River City Church’s book club meeting. A double blessing last week.

If you had been part of that book club meeting, which card would you have picked to read?

As always thanks for reading. And a special thanks to Estelle for sharing her book club meeting.