<p>In the mid 1920s, Bessie Elliott and her husband Fletcher take in their six-year-old nephew John. They are determined to give him a warm and secure home on Stone Mountain, a place where he will feel loved and know he is always welcome. Having a child brings many changes to their daily life and even more for John, but it isn’t long before he feels completely at home with his aunt and uncle. As he learns about the farm animals, the wildlife and plant life on the mountain, he grows into a young man Bessie and Fletch are proud to call their own. But their life is not without turmoil. Bessie’s healing skills are put to the test when she and Doc Widby deal with an unknown and mysterious illness, one they have no idea how to treat. While doing their best to heal their patient, they run up against a new doctor in Black Mountain who is involved with the Eugenics movement, a program Bessie fiercely opposes. And Bessie and Fletch, along with the rest of their neighbors, are torn apart by a foe threatening the natural beauty of Stone Mountain.</p>

Wise Woman (Appalachian Journey)

Literature & Fiction

C. C. Tillery

Christy Tillery French

Cyndi Tillery Hodges

Literary

Spring Creek Press

In the waning years of the 19th century, Bessie Daniels grows up in the small town of Hot Springs in western North Carolina. Secure in the love of her father, yet troubled with her mother's desire that she be a proper Southern belle, Bessie is determined to forge her own way in life. Or, as her Cherokee great- grandmother, Elisi, puts it, to be a whistling woman. Life, however, has a few surprises for her. First, there's Papa carrying home a dead man, which seems to invite Death for an extended visit in their home. Shortly before she graduates from Dorland Institute, there's another death, this one closer to her heart. But Death isn't through with her yet. Proving another of Elisi's sayings, death comes in threes, It strikes yet again, taking someone Bessie has recently learned to appreciate and cherish, leaving her to struggle with a family that's threatening to come apart at the seams. Even her beloved Papa appears to be turning into another person, someone Bessie disagrees with more often than not, and someone she isn't even sure she can continue to love, much less idolize as she had during her childhood. And when Papa makes a decision that costs the life of a new friend, the course of Bessie's heart is changed forever.

Whistling Woman

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