"The Music of Her Life"

By Judith M. McManus

The War took him away. Is her love strong enough to bring him home?From family tragedy, the War, to undying love, this compelling story spans three generations.It's 1933, and the Depression has devastated the lives of most families in Birmingham, Alabama. The iron and steel industry virtually shut down, the textile industry is significantly impacted, and Virginia (VA) Johannsen's classmates are leaving town with their families to find work. At fourteen, she doesn't understand their circumstances since her father is a prominent physician, they have plenty to eat, and she wears a new dress every week. VA's family is happy with no worries until her father unexpectedly dies while on an out of town medical lecture series, or so she thought. Her mother, Lucy, knows the circumstances surrounding her father's lecture series but keeps them to herself. Her secrets are numerous, but the only one that comes to light is in the form of eight white-robed colleagues that have asked to be pallbearers at his funeral. In the era of the Dorsey brothers, Harry James, and the Big Band sound, Virginia starts college, tunes in regularly to her favorite swing band radio station while war news fills the headlines. She refuses to listen; it's 1938 and it's all too far away to impact her. One day after class she meets Larry Abbott and is immediately swept off her feet. A pre-med student, Larry is handsome, from a wealthy Birmingham family, and falls for the lovely dark-haired beauty with emerald green eyes. Their lives revolve around one another, are soon engaged, and a wedding is planned for December 1941. After two years and registering in a peacetime draft, Larry is hesitant to set the wedding date. Why? On December 7, 1941, war is declared, and VA's brothers and Larry are prepared to enlist when called. When Larry leaves for England as a member of the US Army Medical Corp., how can she let him go? The devastation she never wanted to hear about is about to fill her life with tremendous loss. Can she bear the emotional airstrike that will impact the rest of her life?

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1985830523
• ISBN13: 9781985830523
• Release Date: September 2018
• Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 470 Pages
• Weight: 1.19 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.5" x 8.5"