Behind a locked bedroom door, Molly Foster wrestles with another bout of melancholy and despair. In the early twentieth century, few residents of her rural Missouri community understand the nature of her suffering. Her "spells" said by most to be the result of an itinerant woman's curse leveled on her and her descendants when she drove the beggar from her door. Others believe her actions to be deliberate. Only her husband, Tom, and her doctor believe she is ill. Through the ensuing years, Tom, their son Clint, and daughter Pearl deal with isolation and shame brought about by the illness. A...

Inspired by an emotional telephone call from a grandson asking for guidance, a grandmother offers her advice for the teen and young adult, as well as their grandmothers, to build a relationship of support between the generations. Common sense guidelines for living are offered citing the author's experiences, both good and bad, as examples of what does and what does not work, reminding the young that most of the time their best resort for counsel is likely to be their own grandmother.

---"a wise voice, that of a wife and grandmother who has lived with this problem since youth uses her own life and experience to help empower other patients with chronic pain. Through her own story, she encourages them using some unique, and many universal experiences to take charge of the problem and deal with it from the inside out." -Harry LaMoine Greene II, M. D.