Important Book Spotlights Women's Medical Health in Ashes over Yellowstone by Hannah Alexander - Case from Today's Headlines!

 “Because you’ve decided that’s the honorable thing to do. This isn’t so much about your mother as it is about you.” “Just to scatter some ashes?” she asked. “On Saturday, I thought God was trying to tell me something, but now I think I was way out of line.” Julian shook his head. “You told me yourself that you’re a grown woman. You knew what you were doing. You were right.” She gazed up at him, her golden eyes filled with so much trust. “How do you always know what to say?” “You know as well as I do that sometimes we suffer for doing the right thing. That doesn’t make it less right.” “You don’t think God is the one punishing me?” “What would have happened to that little girl if you hadn’t been there? It’s pretty obvious you saved her life.” She grimaced. “She might’ve been okay.” “No, because Clark was fighting his way through a crowd of onlookers while you were racing in front of that bull. I saw the video. Superman though he is, he couldn’t have made it in time.” “Onlookers?” Julian smiled at her. “I watched the clip quite a few times, and now that I’ve focused on the insane tourists who surrounded you in the video, I’m convinced.” “I haven’t seen it. Do you have it on your phone?” Julian took his phone out and showed her the video. Unfortunately, she turned pale as she saw the part where the animal gored her hip. “Even if he’d been able to shoot that bison,” Julian said, putting the phone away, “that might have scarred the child for life. And what if he’d missed? A person doesn’t shoot through a crowd of people.” She eased back onto the exam bed. “Thanks,” she whispered. “You’re welcome,” he said with a smile. How could he not smile in her presence? “It’s going to be okay, Kathryn. You’re a very discerning woman.” She made a face. “Not in my present condition.” “Then trust what I say. I think you might be out here to discover a lot more than you expected.”

Yesterday, my niece Rachel was taking me to my eye doctor and she shared her worry about Avi, her son... who had been bit in the face by a grown Shepherd dog... That's was a shock, just listening... and I could tell she was very upset... After my appointment, she asked where we were having lunch, that she hadn't eaten for days... We went in and ordered. And within a few minutes she asked whether I had heard about a recent case. She and I talk about events happening in the United States that has affected our lives in a small or greater way.

I said no and she responded it was about a woman and psychosis. I gasped! I stopped her immediately. I said, "Rachel, I have just completed reading a book on postpartum psychosis! It seems that this is a God Incident,,, 

Folks, it's happening too often for me to not realize that things are being directed by our Father... Our high awareness about how this administration has done nothing but withdraw from providing health care for women (and others) that is both beneficial and meaningful. The overturn of Roe was, as we have seen, just a beginning of an attempt to ensure that women were once again controlled by those who care nothing about the patient, but rather have some alternative reason for involving themselves in the medical field... Or, that rich white men have ensured that doctors are controlled and responsive only to what has been planned so that women can once again be controlled... Either way, what it represents is an ongoing loss of assistance in the many issues that may enter a woman's life as a result of pregnancy...

It seems to me when we have a Secretary of Heath of a corrupt government that has shown over and over that personal opinions are driving decisions these days, it is up to all God's children to speak out and often, as guided by His Holy Spirit...

Thus, I have made the choice to first present the "secret" that was identified in this book. While it plays, in my opinion, somewhat of a minor role in the overall story of the characters, identifying the fact that, right now, in the United States, there is a woman on trial for this mental disease is much more important, when we already know that the legal system, also, is hit-or-miss, under the present administration. It is important, therefore, that we identify what, apparently, is a potential, possible occurrence to a woman after pregnancy and movement into the postpartum time period... within a worl of turmoil and street and disinformation...

The news commentator in this last video points out that she as a woman and many others are concerned about the fact that a man with no medical or scientific credentials is now making judgments of what and how decisions have arrived to conclusions... WHILE at the same time taking away funds for OUR medical support and/or forcing laws on we women that have led to extreme measures for women to even gain support.... The key issue is that women are unique. Each is a different, living person. Without personalized care from both science and medical experts in their fields, we are left with people like Mr. Kennedy who would much rather play the latest administration response to each topic, rather than to actually discuss ways by which we can move forward in research and advancements in the important fields supporting human life...

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A gazillion years ago, long before she was born, Three Dog Night had it right—One truly was the loneliest number, especially when she had been abused by her mother as a child and later cheated on by a husband with practically every woman on the planet. Very especially when she couldn’t get past that and move on with her life.

...she would sweetly shut him down. Maybe that was because she had no desire to connect with him in that way, but as time went on, he began to wonder if her lack of connection with her own mother was the reason she couldn’t connect with anyone else.

“Hey!” she yelled, slapping the outside of her door for his attention. He ignored her. “Kids!” she shouted. “Get out of there!” They ignored her, too. The bull lowered his head and started toward them. She couldn’t open her driver door because another bison blocked it. She scrambled over the console, shoved the urn off the seat to the floorboard, and clambered out the passenger door, hitting her knee on the urn. The little girl screamed. The teenagers ran away. In the periphery of her vision, Kathryn saw a ranger vehicle speeding over the uneven terrain. Not fast enough. Kathryn raced toward the child as the bison charged. She was too far away. She wouldn’t make it. The SUV’s horn honked as it slid to a stop, shooting dust into the air. Kathryn shouted and waved her arms to distract the bison. 

“Honey, turn and run!” she called to the girl. The child froze in terror. “Run!” Kathryn screamed. The little girl stumbled backwards. The door to the ranger SUV slammed and someone came running. Kathryn raced in front of the charging animal and grabbed the girl into her arms, still running. She glanced over her shoulder and saw the bison bearing down on her. She scrambled to her right to avoid those deadly curved horns. She stumbled over a rise in the earth and nearly lost her footing. A man shouted and Kathryn heard the cocking of a gun and prayed the ranger knew better than to shoot toward a crowd. Or toward her. She kept up her pace, hearing the hoofbeats behind her as the child screamed in her ear and clung to her desperately. There was no missing the rumble of the bison’s footsteps closing in. The weight of the child slowed Kathryn’s steps. A deafening report echoed in the air at the same time the bull rammed her from behind. 

The ranger had given a warning shot. Something sharp cut into her right hip. She raced past three cow bison and their red calves, keeping her footing despite the wallowed mud sucking at her shoes. She reached the park SUV, complete with ranger, who stood poised to shoot again. “Kat!” he yelled as he reached for her. Only then did she stop and release the child. “Kathryn?” She tumbled forward as she caught sight of blood dripping down her leg. And then she felt pain. That monster had gored her. In the tush. 

Julian Carmichael entered the staff door of Stone Clinic in Columbia Missouri on Tuesday morning and was met by his sister, Olivia, and two nurses. “What a great morning, right?” he said. “No humidity, no clouds. It’s a beautiful⁠—” “Jules,” came a warning tone in his sister’s voice. “It isn’t a good morning for everyone.” No one else said a word. He frowned. The clinic sounded unusually silent for this time of morning, the women strangely serious for once. On any other day they would be chatting about incoming cases and clinic politics and all the local medical gossip—Columbia was, after all, a university town with a lot of med students. “What’s wrong?” he asked. His typically emotional younger sister looked as if she might cry. She held her cell phone up. “We’ve got to get to Yellowstone.” “What?” “Now.” He reached for her cell and saw a miniature video of a woman with long red hair, carrying a child in her arms, being gored in the right butt cheek by a bison as she scrambled to escape him. He thought he knew that hair, those movements, but this view was from the back. “It’s Kathryn,” Liv said. “You’re sure?” He didn’t want to believe it. Liv gave an irritated puff. “I know that hair. I know that shape. See those jeans? She wears them all the time when she’s not working. You know this, Jules.” He didn’t want to believe it. This exact situation had been one of his worst nightmares since she’d left, and he’d told himself his imagination was working overtime. The video showed someone who certainly looked like Kathryn delivering the child to safety before stumbling into the arms of a man in uniform. There was blood on her clothing. Hadn’t he warned her not to go alone? “H-have you tried calling her?” he asked. “Five times,” Liv said. “There’s bad coverage in parts of Yellowstone. Kathryn told me that when I called her yesterday.” Julian pulled out his own cell phone and tried Kathryn’s speed dial, just in case. They’d talked Sunday night after she arrived safely in Cody and then again yesterday after she picked up the urn from the funeral home. “We have to get to her,” Liv said. He dialed another number and waited for Kathryn’s father to pick up. She’d left his number and her brother’s with Julian in case of emergency. No one answered. He tried Shane. Nothing. 

Wyoming was a vast wilderness. A person could get lost there, which was why he’d practically begged Kathryn not to go alone in the first place. But would she listen? Of course not. He knew Wyoming had a tiny population for its size, but couldn’t they at least work on their cell coverage? “We should fly,” Liv said. “That’ll be faster.” “We? No. The clinic is already struggling to take up Kathryn’s slack.” “Then I need to be the one to go,” Liv said. Julian shook his head. “You’re the default director this month. What will Art do if you and I both leave?” “Laine or Ian⁠—” “Are especially busy with Weston Cline’s project this month,” Julian said. “You know that. We would be deluged with too many patients. This clinic’s too busy to be missing three docs at once.” Liv touched his arm. “I should be the one to go, Jules,” she said softly. “Kathryn and I are already like sisters. You stay and help hold down the fort.” Julian loved his little sister, but she could challenge him sometimes. It wasn’t his fault she’d chosen this hill for him to die on. But die he would. “You already signed up for that,” he said. “Jules.” 

He walked into the reception office. “Tara, reschedule my appointments for the rest of the week. If any of my patients don’t want to wait, Olivia has some openings.” Dan Kirkland’s hospitalist was scheduled to call today with Dan’s latest test results. Julian hated to dump that man’s case on his sister, but she could handle him. “Hey!” Liv protested. “We’ll lose half our female patients if you take off.” “Then schedule them with Ian or Art,” Julian said. “They’ve got openings, too.” “Sure, but they’re taken.” She was obviously attempting to insert some levity into her voice. It was forced. “The females in our practice have decided to set their sights on you instead.” It was on the tip of his tongue to say that he, too, was taken. With Kathryn. “I can’t stay here in Columbia when Kathryn’s in trouble, Liv.” His sister’s eyebrows shot up. Her mouth came open. “Don’t start.” He glanced at the staff standing around them, eyes wide open as if they were watching a show. He sank into a chair in front of a computer terminal and pulled up flights from Kansas City. He didn’t care about the cost. His immediate fear when Kathryn left was that she might have car trouble. Julian had nagged her for months to get the tires replaced. He knew she didn’t want to drive a strange car while scattering her mother’s ashes, but she’d driven his car a couple of times, so he didn’t understand the problem. He sighed with frustration. Kathryn could be stubborn. He’d always admired her strong will. He still did, but she also exasperated him. 

Her estranged mother’s death this spring had hit her harder than she’d wanted to admit. She’d never said much about her mother except that she was an addict and an abuser. Her brother, Shane, had been the one to explain that Rowena had focused her rage on Kathryn, specifically.

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Readers follow the main character Kathryn as she has gotten over a messy divorce, found a job at a clinic as one of the doctors who served in the area, and was actually coming to enjoy her life, as she met a brother-sister pair with whom she had developed close relationships. The sister, Liv had found a sister to share girl-secrets with, while her brother, who was a bit younger than Kathryn and never been married, had immediately began to consider Kathryn as part of his future life... They enjoyed working together and, as friends, were slowly getting to know a little bit about each other.

The three of them had one thing in common. Dysfunctional parent situations. It seemed that the three had survived their backgrounds and had worked hard to begin to serve humanity through their medical skills.

Until the day that Kathryn got a call from a former grade-school teacher, with whom she'd maintain a relationship. It was that woman who noticed sudden changes in Kathryn and had placed herself into the middle of a situation that ultimately led to her mother being placed in jail and blocked from any further contact with her children. Her father had acted proactively to ensure she and her brother were both safe, while, also, continuing to financial support his wife during whatever it was that was caused the change in his beloved wife. 

Years had now gone by and Kathryn had moved on with her life. But it was a call from that teacher that caused her to consider just how her past life had really affected her. Kathryn was being told that the remains of her mother who had died months ago, we still awaiting action. None of the family had fulfilled the normal process in making final arrangements. There were three individuals who had not felt the need to ensure the remains of the 4th member of a once loving family to be addressed.

And it seemed the decision of what to do would be left up to Kathryn since she had been the child that had been abused by her mother... And continued to fear her, even in death...

Memories flooded Kathryn's mind... She was thrown back into all the pain from her early life and then her marriage and its humiliation of never feeling she was enough for somebody to love... But then memories of the happy days of her earlier life, when her mother, together with her Dad and brother had shared a wonderful life... She could remember that her mother had once brought happiness. But, even now, her brother, who had watched what happened to his younger sister had not yet been able to think of anything except the pain that was being placed, while he as her big brother could do nothing to stop the abuse... Kathryn wondered whether she could handle the final parting by herself... Did she have the strength to bypass her most recent fears of her mother and having had a legal restriction placed to ensure her mother would never be able to get near her again?

I believe that at these times in our lives, God touches a few of his children who could be of help to the trauma now being faced by one of His Own... And soon Kathryn received a list of people who had been contacted in advance that Kathryn might be calling and would they talk to her about their life with Rowena, the older woman who had been transformed and was loved by the people who had been helped by her mother...

Could she deal with finding out more about her mother? After all, she immediately remembered the one telephone call she had received when her mother got out of prison and had called wanting to see her daughter. Kathryn had explained that she didn't think that was a good idea. Now, she remembered that she'd rejected her at that time. Did she really have it in her to now find out more about her mother during her final years?

Rowena had wanted her cremains to be placed on the Yellowstone lands where so many good memeories had occurred as a young family. What path would she take, if she chose to actually work to fulfill her mother's final wishes for her body?

Readers will read, along with Kathryn, what she goes through to make a final decision that, provides only traumatic memories from her memories. Let me just say, that she did act on behalf of her mother... 

And entered a world of love that she had been forced to reject, but, emotionally she still wanted and needed... The power of love and forgiveness and a freedom for a life that already was possible for her, but had been rejected as well, perhaps based only on fear. But such a strong fear that only God could have arranged... A Future of Love...

This is a perfect book to begin to think through what women face on a daily basis, when fear is part of their lives... I found another favorite song which helped me through a recent difficult time... You'll see it often here as I close out another post... Hope you like it as much as I do...

Gabby