Lindsay Mitchell has hit forty - and hit it hard. Although she has a fulfilling vocation as an assistant minister at a central New Jersey church, she now finds herself wondering what the next twenty years of her life will be like. In particular, she looks fondly back on the good old days with her college band, the Poison Pen Society. "I just want to rock one more time before I die," she tells friends Sue and Patti. Someone must have been listening. When Patti invites Lins to spend her vacation at Point Pleasant Beach she meets Neil Gardner, front man for the Grim Reapers - and Neil is looking for a new female lead singer. But agnostic Neil and his complicated, messy life might just be more change than Lins has bargained for.
No one thought that the Second Street boarding house would be destroyed by arsonists. Things have gotten ugly in Blaineton, New Jersey. It is in the middle of the Civil War and the abolitionist sympathies of the people in Maggie's house have made them a target for Copperhead forces. When the violence threatens to escalate, Maggie's husband Eli decides to move everyone to his family's old home, where his two sisters are aiding fugitive slaves. But this means relocating to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Maggie and her family risk the move, hoping to find some badly-needed peace of mind and heart. But that may not be possible with newspaperman Eli and reporter/photographer Chester Carson off covering the war and with Edgar and Patrick in the army. While Maggie and the remaining members of her family struggle to start anew in a strange place, they begin to hear rumors. Will Confederate troops march into Pennsylvania? And if so, what will happen?
In 1863 Maggie Blaine Smith would write "that this time after the storm of battle has been a waiting time, a time of recovery. We did not know where we would be led next. We did not know when or if change would happen." A TIME TO HEAL, set in the months immediately after the Battle of Gettysburg, continues the story of Maggie and Eli Smith and their unconventional family. Maggie's daughters and friends struggle to care for a houseful of wounded soldiers. Maggie and Emily, after suffering terrible trauma, have moved with their husbands to a more peaceful location. Everyone hopes and prays for healing and a return to normal life. But when an act of compassion is mistaken for civil disobedience the family is once again threatened.
During the battle of Gettysburg Maggie Blaine Smith saw the elephant.* Now she prays for a calmer life as the family returns to their hometown of Blaineton, New Jersey. She is grateful her husband Eli will be gainfully employed at long last. He has been appointed as Editor-in-Chief of The Register, a newspaper owned by the indomitable Tryphena Moore. But Maggie gradually becomes concerned about Eli's recurrent nightmares, not to mention his insistence on poking his nose into the business of industrialist Josiah Norton, a man intent on leaving his mark on the town. And then there's her daughter Frankie, who has found employment at the Western New Jersey Hospital for the Insane. Life after Gettysburg is not quite as peaceful as Maggie had hoped.*In the nineteenth-century, "seeing the elephant" (or "I've seen the elephant") meant, "Now, I've seen everything" or "Now, I've seen it all." Civil War soldiers also used the term to say, "I've been in the war.
No one thought that the Second Street boarding house would be destroyed by arsonists. No one wanted to believe that Nate Johnson would be beaten simply because of his race. But things have gotten ugly in Blaineton, New Jersey. It is in the middle of the Civil War and the abolitionist sympathies of the people in Maggie Blaine Smith's boarding house have made them a target for racist and Copperhead forces. When the violence threatens to get worse, the sheriff suggests that they move until things calm down. Maggie's husband Eli has a proposal for them: his two sisters need help aiding fugitive slaves evade the Confederate Army and find freedom in the north. However, first they must relocate to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Maggie and her family risk the move, hoping that they will find some badly-needed peace there. But can that happen when newspaperman Eli and reporter/photographer Chester Carson are off covering the war? Can they find peace when Maggie's son-in-law Edgar and her other daughter's beau, Patrick, are still in the army? How can Maggie and the remaining members of her family start anew in a strange place? And how will all of them hold on to their courage, strength, and faith as the war rages and Confederate and Union forces march into Pennsylvania?
In the nineteenth century "seeing the elephant" or "I've seen the elephant" meant "now I've seen everything" or "now I've seen it all." Civil War soldiers also used the term to mean they had seen battle. Maggie and her unconventional family have seen the elephant in more ways than they ever thought possible. But now they have returned to their hometown of Blaineton, New Jersey and things are looking up. Maggie's husband Eli has been hired as the Editor-in-Chief of The Register, the town's new newspaper, published by the indomitable Tryphena Moore. Emily Johnson's husband Nate has re-established his carpentry business, and Emily's home-baked goods are selling at the local bakery.But they soon discover that Blaineton is not the same. An insane asylum has opened its doors north of town. A woolen mill and army uniform factory are doing big business to Blaineton's south. And a wealthy industrialist by the name of Josiah Norton seeks to change the face and tenor of the once sleepy burg. And old struggles are still with them. Maggie worries about Eli, who suffers increasingly from nightmares. Maggie cares for a new baby and edits articles for the Register., She and Emily find it difficult keeping up an enormous house. And Maggie's daughter Frankie has accepted a job offer at the Western New Jersey Hospital for the Insane. Life may not be as peaceful as they all had hoped.
Romance is in the air for Maggie Blaine Smith's daughters when Sergeant Patrick McCoy (daughter Frankie Blaine's beau) and Captain Philip Frost (daughter Lydia Blaine Lape's friend) make a surprise visit to Blaineton, New Jersey on their way to their new posts at Mower General Hospital, Philadelphia. Maggie struggles as she realizes that her daughters are becoming women. Eighteen-year-old Frankie will marry Patrick eventually. That much is obvious. But when? Maggie hopes and prays it will not for a while yet. Meanwhile, her husband Eli Smith is on a campaign to protect his stepdaughter's chastity, something both Frankie and Patrick find annoying. Neither parent, though, has any concerns about Lydia. She is the sensible one, the one who never does anything impulsively. In addition, she is an adult - nearly twenty-two years of age - and still in mourning for her late husband, Edgar Lape. Nothing to see here. Or is there?A visit Philadelphia and its Great Central Fair of 1864 just might change things for everyone.
Sometimes miracles happen when you expect them least but need them most. It is Christmas Eve of 1863. As a snow storm howls out-side, Maggie and her family care for their three youngest members, all of whom are seriously ill. A knock at the door brings an unanticipated interruption in the form of an odd little peddler. Despite her anxiety over the children, Maggie invites the stranger in and feeds him supper, an act of kindness that has an impact on her entire family.
It is 1860. Maggie, a widow with two teenage daughters, runs a rooming house smack dab on the town square. This fact alone makes her a social outcast boarding houses are not exactly respectable. And her collection of eclectic boarders a failed aging writer, an undertaker's apprentice, a struggling young lawyer, and an old Irishman only brings her snubs and snide comments, as does her friendship with Emily and Nate, an African-American couple with whom she shares her home and chores. So Maggie is stunned when she is asked to provide a room for Jeremiah Madison, the new Methodist minister. She hopes that he will revive the little church that she attends, as well as provide her boarding house with a badly-needed aura of respectability. Jeremiah is gifted and charismatic. But he has a secret, one that will change Maggie, her friends, and her town forever.
It is August of 1862 and sixteen-year-old Frances "Frankie" Blaine learns that her beau, Patrick, will be enlisting in the Army. In the flush of first love, Frankie wants to be by his side. She also wonders why she can't enlist and fight in the war too. Since no one seems able to give her a rational explanation other than that she can't because she is a girl, Frankie comes up with a plan. But it backfires and thrusts her into a world that she didn't expect and from which she learns some large lessons.
Lindsay Mitchell has hit forty - and hit it hard. Although she has a fulfilling vocation as an assistant minister at a central New Jersey church, she now finds herself wondering what the next twenty years of her life will be like. In particular, she looks fondly back on the good old days with her college band, the Poison Pen Society. "I just want to rock one more time before I die," she tells friends Sue and Patti. Someone must have been listening. When Patti invites Lins to spend her vacation at Point Pleasant Beach she meets Neil Gardner, front man for the Grim Reapers - and Neil is looking for a new female lead singer. But agnostic Neil and his complicated, messy life might just be more change than Lins has bargained for.
In this gentle prequel to the Saint Maggie Series, widow Maggie Blaine has scant joy in Christmas of 1852. Having lost her husband nearly three years earlier and her much-loved Aunt Letty that year, she struggles to maintain the boarding house and feed and care for those who live in it. Finally, she hires a woman named Emily Johnson to help her. Even though Maggie is white and Emily is black, the two women become friends. When Emily and her husband Nate suffer a disaster, the financially-challenged Maggie decides help them at the expense of Christmas dinner and her beloved Dundee cake.
Set in the months immediately after the Battle of Gettysburg, A TIME TO HEAL continues the story of Maggie and Eli Smith and their unconventional family. Everyone is hoping and praying for healing and a return to normal life, but an act of compassion has unintended consequences and puts them in jeopardy.
No one thought that the Second Street boarding house would be destroyed by arsonists. Things have gotten ugly in Blaineton, New Jersey. It is in the middle of the Civil War and the abolitionist sympathies of the people in Maggie's house have made them a target for Copperhead forces. When the violence threatens to escalate, Maggie's husband Eli decides to move everyone to his family's old home, where his two sisters are aiding fugitive slaves. But this means relocating to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Maggie and her family risk the move, hoping to find some badly-needed peace of mind and heart. But that may not be possible with newspaperman Eli and reporter/photographer Chester Carson off covering the war and with Edgar and Patrick in the army. While Maggie and the remaining members of her family struggle to start anew in a strange place, they begin to hear rumors. Will Confederate troops march into Pennsylvania? And if so, what will happen?
Thank you for visiting our website. Would you like to provide feedback on how we could improve your experience?
This site does not use any third party cookies with one exception — it uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic.Learn More.