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We found 3 results for “joyce kieffer”

The Trees Endure by Joyce L. Kieffer | BookBaby Bookshophttps://store.bookbaby.com/book/the-trees-endureIn 1901, after three tumultuous years as a student nurse at Johns Hopkins Training School for Nurses and a relationship with a doctor who stole her heart, Rebecca Wagner returns to her family farm and the disappearance of virgin forests surrounding rural McAlisterville, Pennsylvania. However, everything she holds dear has changed. The hometown sweetheart she had promised to marry may have found someone new, and much of the forests in the Shade Mountains surrounding the farm have been stripped bare. Unwilling to succumb to her fears, she convinces the town doctor to hire her, and ingratiates herself into the hearts of people in the Juniata Valley. But it is her work in the dangerous and primitive lumber camps in the nearby mountains that test her skills and strength. Skills that require her to handle horrific accidents and illnesses that take away life and limb. Strength to travel by horseback through steep mountain terrain in oppressive heat and numbing cold, and stand up to hostile wood hicks who are clear-cutting the very mountains she loves. What hasn't changed is her desire to use native plants and trees for healing as taught by her mentor, a mysterious Indian woman who lives on the edge of the farm ever since Rebecca was born. Nor the harassment by a rogue lumbermill worker whose threats grow ever more serious. Ultimately, Rebecca must choose between her hometown sweetheart and the promise of a simple life in the country, or the doctor she left behind in Baltimore and the life of privilege he pledges to give her. However, the secrets she is hiding threaten to upend what she believes about herself, as well as everything she has worked so hard for—including her wish to be the healer she has always dreamed of being.eBook, Paperback

The Trees Remember by Joyce L. Kieffer | BookBaby Bookshophttps://store.bookbaby.com/book/the-trees-rememberIn the previous two novels—The Trees Inspire and The Trees Endure, set in rural Pennsylvania from 1897 to 1903—Rebecca Wagner longs to be more than a farm girl. After becoming a trained nurse, she returns to the Juniata Valley eager to forge her own path as an independent woman—working for the town doctor, and in the primitive and hostile lumber camps in the Shade Mountains where she is threatened by man and beast. In this final novel, Rebecca must decide whether to live her life as white woman or reveal her true lineage and face losing her quest to be the healer she has worked so hard to become. But her mixed race and the destruction of the forests in the nearby Shade Mountains undermine everything she believes in. However, one thing does remain clear: Ben, the man Rebecca's has loved for many years has accepted her heritage and agrees to marry her in a secret Iroquois ceremony near the family farm. What they don't know is that their secret ceremony is no longer a secret. When they try to marry in the church the preacher calls off the wedding, claiming the council won't marry them because they participate in heathen ceremonies. In hopes of saving their reputation, they are quietly married by a justice of the peace. Over the next year, Rebecca continues to work in the town doctor's office, but a growing number of men and women refuse to have her treat them. Soon her reputation as a nurse is threatened by those who accuse her of being a heathen. To make matters more difficult, when she travels to the dangerous lumber camps to take care of the wood hicks, they won't allow her to touch them. When their rejections jeopardize her livelihood, Rebecca fears for her future. More trouble ensues as Ben's buggy business is experiencing the same accusations from its customers, forcing him to try to find another way to support himself and his new wife. Tensions grow between them, along with the realization that the coming perils of winter will force them to leave the small cabin where they have been living deep in the mountains. Soon violence against Rebecca's Iroquois mentor Back So Straight escalates. First the plants and herbs she stores in her cabin are burned. Then forest fires, clear cutting, and the erosion that takes with it small trees, shrubs, and plants, denude the mountainsides and fill the streams with silt. When her beloved dog is shot and killed, Back so Straight loses her only remaining link to her family. Finally, her cabin is burned to the ground, forcing her to live in a cave in the mountains. When a group of men try to rebuild her home, the church council refuses to permit them to finish. Despite her losses, Back So Straight continues to teach Rebecca about the plants and trees her ancestors used to heal for thousands of years. But now that the nearby mountains are ruined, they need to travel far into the neighboring mountains to find them. While a lumber camp closes because the wood hicks develop consumption, and another when the horses suffer from disease, the only remaining camp is declining from over- harvesting. Rebecca's livelihood begins to disappear like the surrounding forests. Adding to her worries, Rebecca's father loses his hand in a lumber mill accident and becomes increasingly aware of his plight: a domineering wife, daughter and son whom he has alienated, land he cannot farm, and work he can no longer do. The situation becomes particularly perilous after Rebecca gives birth to a long-awaited daughter. Now she must decide whether to reveal her heritage—realizing that if she does, she and those closest to her may be dangerously threatened by the truth.eBook, Paperback

The Trees Inspire by Joyce L. Kieffer | BookBaby Bookshophttps://store.bookbaby.com/book/the-trees-inspireREBECCA WAGNER comes of age in the late 1890s while living on a farm surrounded by virgin timber in the Shade Mountains of Juniata County, Pennsylvania. Her world is threatened by conflict between her wish to become more than a farm girl and the contrasting expectations of those who love her. BACK SO STRAIGHT, a mysterious Native American healer who has lived on the edge of the farm for as long as Rebecca remembers, mentors her. She guides and advises the young woman and teaches her to use trees and plants as medicine. When the family barn burns down, there is little hope of recouping their loss. After the fire, the owner of a lumber company who is setting up lumber camps and mills in the surrounding mountains, offers lumber and money to rebuild the barn in exchange for 100 acres of virgin Wagner woodland. But in time it becomes clear that his motives are not entirely neighborly. Rebecca becomes friends with his daughter MAGGIE and Maggie's friend LILLY. Their families' luxurious lifestyle gives Rebecca a glimpse of what it would be like to live without housework, farm chores and taking care of aging grandparents. Her relationship with her two friends grows with each excursion into the forests. Although they marvel at Rebecca's knowledge of the mountains and wildlife, danger from animals and a rogue lumbermill worker threatens them. Over the next few years, the three young women form a bond that will be severely tested by violence and the distance between them. Rebecca meets BEN, a young man who runs his family's carriage business. She falls in love and hopes to someday plan a future with him. However, the rogue lumberman also tries to win her affection, but when she refuses to return his efforts, he harasses and stalks her. She tries to avoid him but his attempts to intimidate her escalate. Despite her struggles, Rebecca graduates from high school and accepts a sponsorship from the town doctor and Lilly's father to attend the Johns Hopkins Training School for Nurses. In Baltimore, she encounters people she's never seen—people of color, foreign-speaking immigrants—as well as diseases, poverty and back-breaking work that challenge her will to continue. There she meets CHRISTOPHER, a resident doctor from a prominent family who introduces her to the finer things in life. She risks all for him despite her promise to Ben, the man she gave her heart to in Juniata County. Although Rebecca graduates from nursing school with honors, a series of disappointments force her to return to the farm. Once there, she discovers the trees being clear-cut at an alarming rate, displacing animals and plants where rich diversity once thrived. Now it is up to her to decide her future as a young woman with limited life choices—and what, if anything, she can do about the disappearing forests surrounding her childhood home.eBook, Paperback

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