New Release -- Beyond the Blue Mountains by Celia Yeary -- @prairierosepubs #prairierosepub #newrelease

Shattered lives...Broken hearts...A new beginning...

Guymon Reynolds arrives home to Grove's Point, Texas, in February 1919, the end of WWI. Knowing he's lost his parents and two young brothers to the Spanish flu, he's anxious to see his grandpa at the family farm. But nothing is right upon his arrival. He faces more death and destruction that resembles the battlefields where he fought in France.

Young widow Teresa Logan lives near the depot. She grieves for her husband who died from the flu. Alone on a farm with two baby girls, she struggles with loneliness, back-breaking work, and sometimes, fear. But Teresa is strong and determines to care for her family and her farm alone. 

Guy and Teresa meet and they easily bond, sharing grief and sorrow. Both dream of a better life in Grove's Point, or perhaps a new beginning beyond the Blue Mountains.

EXCERPT

North Texas

November, 1918

Dearest Mama and Daddy,

I write this letter in hopes you are well. Our lives are in turmoil these days, with the sickness surrounding us with its horror and grim results. Only yesterday, Mrs. Carson passed, leaving her grieving husband and four little ones to cope alone. The day before, three members of the community succumbed, after days of horrible pain and suffering. No one, not even our doctor, can identify the cause. Some say it is from the same invasive thing that causes pneumonia, or something in the air, but others believe infected persons pass it along.

Garland and I try as best we can to keep far away from the foul air the others breathe, but the task is impossible, at best. Baby Irene and little Susannah are healthy as of this hour, but I worry each time Garland goes from the house and returns, fearful he has brought home upon his person the invisible sickness, the dreaded Spanish influenza, it is called, with vomiting, chills, fever, and a quick death.

The pastor, I have been told, as I do not attend the church often, has questioned God concerning His purpose of this wrath upon our frail human bodies, and that is his right as a spokesman for Our Lord. I dare not raise an objection, being a lowly woman of the earth. I have no knowledge or say in the matter.

The heat has been oppressive, as to almost unbearable for October. For some reason or another, I believe in my heart that a cold wind from the north would quell the spread of this death and horror.

The bright and glorious news of the peace agreement that ended the disastrous World War somehow creates within us a calm we have not felt for a long time. A cruel twist of fate, however, is news of our soldiers returning home, only to find their families devastated by death from the influenza. Ryan Colbert came home healthy from the war, only to find his mother and sister in graves, as they passed from the vile disease. I can name many others, as well, but I have neither the time nor the space to relate the stories to you. I know you, there at home, suffer as we do here in North Texas.

Yesterday, I picked the garden clean of the last of the vegetables—a few almost ripe tomatoes, some pods of overgrown okra, and a bucket full of black-eyed peas, their pods yellow and tough, but still holding the precious vegetable inside. Tonight, we will eat bowls of hot peas cooked with bacon and onions. Thank you, Mama, for teaching me to cook so well. I do believe that is the reason Garland loves me so, even though he laughs and tells me it is my black hair he loves the most.

I do confess I have not been well for a couple of days, but I believe it is nothing more than the heat and damp air. Others in the community have complained of a general unwell feeling, which leads me to believe the reason is only the warm and humid air of the season.

Do take care, and know I love you with all my heart. Try not to worry so. All anyone or I can do is place our trust in God and live one day at a time.

Your loving daughter,

Teresa