Next to Heaven (Book 1)

By Robert W. Harrison and Sara Gill Kuntz

Cataract, PA, 1910: Hardworking, young Susan Lucas has always tried to please her poor papa and shine for him from among her seven sisters and one brother. She is grateful for her loving mama and relieved that her siblings have never been sent off on the Orphan Trains that come through Bellefonte the way some poor folks have done with children they can't afford to keep. Still, she knows that working in the mine and owing the Company Store are killing the papa she once knew. She longs to put the light back into his eyes...But Susan has no idea that her papa has despaired of God giving him another son, so he has decided to do as he sees fit. He orders Susan to go work and live with a suspicious old invalid in Gilltown. There, Susan can earn her keep and save a bit extra for her kin at home. But little does Mr. Lucas know how malicious and evil Mrs. Sullivan truly is. Heartbroken, Susan despairs of ever going to school or going home to her displeased papa and must instead figure out a way to escape.Kat, Susan's oldest and favorite sister, is a young bride living in nearby Clearfield. She loves her husband James and she loves being a midwife, just like her mama! When her heart breaks for a teen girl giving birth in a filthy collier's hut, she begs James to allow Lilah and her baby to come back and live with them. Despite the love and laughter that ensues in their tiny home, it cannot keep evil from awaiting Kat when husband James must leave on a long river drive through the Blue Ridge. And even with the love of her mama, her former teacher, and her beloved husband to help her heal again, Kat herself must find the courage to finally break free. Miss Evelyn Ditty, the caring young Cataract school teacher, yearns to help both Susan and Kat. In fact, she came to Cataract with a great desire to teach and love all her schoolchildren and encourage them to dream beyond a bleak future in the coalmine. She also seeks to put her own painful past behind her. But a handsome old friend's reappearance threatens to stir up disturbing feelings which can only serve to get her fired. As all school teachers of her day, she is expected to remain single or quit. She is desperately torn between the children she loves and a man she has come to care so much for.Next to Heaven is a fictionalized account based on a grandmother's heartbreaking memory of being "placed out" to earn her own keep. Yet it is also the seed of many modern women's stories whose first stinging heartache is the realization that they cannot make their fathers love them. In fact, they are not sure if anyone will ever really love them at all. But a far greater love awaits each of them, if they will only break free.This story is for them.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1500165867
• ISBN13: 9781500165864
• Release Date: June 2014
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 260 Pages
• Weight: 1.01 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.7" x 6.0"