On her fourteenth birthday in 1775, Anna Stickney receives a handmade journal-a place for her secrets and wishes. As the colonies fight for independence, Anna records battles of her own in tiny script: a first love with a young man named James, a war that carries him far away, and sorrows she will never speak aloud. Someday, she promises herself, she'll share it all with her daughter. But someday never comes.
Since Mama's death, a locked box has sat in the Massachusetts home Lucy Wilson shares with her husband and little sister, its key nowhere to be found. Lucy thought she knew everything about the gentle woman who raised her. She was wrong.
Hours before Lucy's life changes forever, the key turns up. Now she can only steal a few quiet moments at a time to read her mother's words-words that burden, soothe, and finally free her as she comes to know the woman she called Mama.
A tender, clean historical novella of a mother's secrets, a daughter's understanding, and a love that outlasted war. A companion to Waking Lucy.