Winter Scenes Giveaway – These Healing Hills

No one comes here by accident. ~Frontier Nurse saying

These Healing Hills is the first book that I set in the Eastern Kentucky Appalachian Mountains and featured history of the region. In hunting for a new story idea I read about Mary Breckinridge and how she started the Frontier Nursing Service and brought midwives to go up into the hills to deliver babies at the mothers’ cabins. They not only delivered babies but gave maternity care before and after the births to give the babies and mothers the best chance of survival and good health. Eventually, she was able to get the people behind her in the area and managed to get a hospital built in Hyden, Kentucky.

When WW II started and the English midwives who had been coming to the area to deliver babies decided they should go back to England and help the war effort there, Breckinridge started a midwifery school to keep the Frontier Nursing Service going. That opened up a way for my character, Francine, to come to the mountains and train to be a midwife.

The story takes place over most of a year and goes through the different seasons in the mountains. One thing is sure that babies are born in all seasons. The Frontier Nursing midwife nurses were ready for that. They headed up into the hills whenever someone came for them no matter what the weather was. They went in heat or cold, rain, ice or snow, night or day. Once at the home of the mother in labor, they stayed until the baby was born whether that was a few hours or a few days. When I was remembering my books with winter and snow scenes, I can’t believe I forgot the snow and ice scenes in These Healing Hills. 

So, tonight I searched out the scene where Fran has to deliver a baby during a time of snow and ice. When there was trouble or expected trouble for the mothers, they were carried out of the mountains to the Hyden Hospital. This birth was one like that, a breech birth that Fran thought needed to be handled at the hospital. Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t cooperating with snow and ice making the journey from the mother’s home high up in the hills hazardous.

Here’s a little of the icy/snowy scene.

The sky had cleared and the moon on the snow made it nearly light as day. Fran kept her hand on Becca’s abdomen to gauge her contractions as they slid down the hill.

Mrs. Locke held her daughter’s hands and moved her lips in silent prayer. When she noticed Fran looking at her, she said, “I’m praying hard we make it down this mountain.”

The truck fishtailed as she spoke and both Fran and Mrs. Locke held Becca to steady her. Ben got the truck back on what passed for a road. For a few minutes, Fran thought they might make it. But then Becca’s pains were stronger as her body began to push out the baby.

“Tell Ben to stop.” Fran looked at Mrs. Locke. “This baby isn’t going to wait for the hospital.”

After the truck stopped, Fran pulled a baby blanket out of her saddlebag and handed it to Mrs. Locke. “Put this up under your coat to get it as warm as possible.” She turned to Ben and Carl who climbed out of the truck to stare at her. “Make a tent with these quilts to keep Becca warm.”

Fran warmed her hands under her armpits as she knelt beside Becca. “I’m going to help you, Becca, but you’ll be doing the work. Work you can do.” In her head, Fran added for herself, You can do this.

Moonlight filtered through the quilts as Fran positioned Becca and prayed the girl would be able to push the baby out quickly enough.

“Go ahead and scream if you need to,” she told Becca. “That might help.”

“Me a-screaming ain’t gonna be the first thing this baby of mine hears,” Becca gasped. “Ma, sing my baby here.”

I hope you enjoyed heading back to the hills for this snow scene with my nurse midwife.

Do you like stories set in Appalachia?

If you leave a comment on the post, you will have an entry into my winter book giveaway chance. If you left a comment on the last posts where I shared snowy scenes, thank you. If you leave a comment on this new post, you’ll get another entry to have an extra chance to win your choice of one of my winter books, including The Believer. 

The deadline for entries is midnight EST, February 10, 2026. Winners will be notified by email and announced on my post on February 11th. You have to be at least 18 years old to enter. Each time you leave a comment on a new post before the deadline, you get another entry. Any comment will do.  You can answer the question or comment on the scene or whatever you want too. I enjoy seeing what you think.

The prize will be a choice of one of my books with winter weather playing a part. I’ll pick two winners by random.