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...

~~~~~~

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.

~~~~~~

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

Hannah Alexander Presents Sacred Trust - The Sacred Trust Series Book 1 - A Personal Favorite for 2025

 

Lukas took the stairs to the second floor, anger and frustration hitting him like salt in a fresh wound. He'd been so sure that the Cunningham Memorial incident had been a fluke. Now it appeared that the medical world was filled with narcissists with control issues.

All was quiet and Lukas knew he should be trying to sleep, but he couldn't get certain people off his mind. He went upstairs to ICU and nodded at the nurse who sat at the central desk. Mercy sat with her head bowed by the side of her daughter's bed. She still wore her stained T-shirt and cut-off denim shorts. Lukas stepped over to the nurse. "Do you have a cot we can set up beside the bed for Dr. Richmond?" "Yes but we’ve been so busy here I haven't been able to leave, and we're short an aide tonight." "Tell me where to find the cot." She gave him directions and he returned in a few moments with a narrow fold-out sleeping chair and a set of scrubs. He carried them to the end of Tedi's bed. "Mercy?" he called softly. She raised her head and looked up at him. Her eyes focused on what he held. "You need sleep," he said. "And since Tedi's out of danger, you can relax. These scrubs will be more comfortable than those clothes." He placed the scrubs on the arm of the chair in which she sat, then tossed down a comb that he had purchased from a vending machine in the cafeteria. "Go change while I set up this cot." She didn't move. She stared at him. For a moment tears filled her dark eyes, but they did not fall this time. Without saying a word, she picked up the stack of items and walked out. Lukas folded out the sleeping chair closely enough to Tedi's bed that Mercy could reach out and touch her. He spread a sheet and a blanket over it, then grabbed a pillow from a nearby empty bed. When Mercy came back in, she wore the blue scrubs and had combed the tangles out of her hair. She still looked pale and tired. And quite beautiful. "Thanks Lukas. I feel a lot better." "You don't look any better. You need sleep." "No wonder you don't date much." She sat down on the cot and watched Tedi's breathing in silence. Lukas leaned against the next bed and observed the silence with her. "I blew it so badly tonight," she said at last. "I upset Tedi and I showed my weakness to Theo." “Like a mama tiger. You should have seen Claudia. If I hadn't made her stay with Tedi, she'd have come in there and ripped into Mr. Zimmerman herself." He chuckled at the memory. Mercy shot him a glance and a wan smile, then patted the other end of the cot. He sat. "What did you overhear?" she asked. "Everything. You know there's no soundproofing in that ER, and you didn't even shut the door. Tedi was the only one in, so...." He shrugged. “If we didn't already know what a nasty character your ex-husband is, we do now. I don't think it came as a great shock to anyone." "Sometimes I hate living in a small town." "Why? Because everybody knows everybody else's business? At least someone cares." She shook her head. "They don't care here more than they do in a big city. They simply have less to keep them occupied, so they occupy themselves in the lives of others." She paused, glanced toward the nurse, and lowered her voice. "I’ve had my name linked to a respectable married physician in the hospital because I took off at the same time he did for a conference last year." "Did it cause much trouble?" "I didn't give it a chance. I threatened to recommend dismissal for a tech who couldn't keep her mouth shut or her mind out of the gutter, and then I warned the wife about it." She grimaced. "It was insulting and distasteful." "I know the feeling." Mercy glanced at him. "You too?" "I was amazed at the rumors that circulated about women I supposedly dated or had secret affairs with, especially when it involved women I'd never met." He glanced at her. "Some people in KC still think I'm a baby daddy—a term I abhor—even though blood tests proved the child was not mine.” “Did the mother claim you were the father?” Mercy asked. Lukas nodded. “She was a nurse I worked with when I started my residency, and for some crazy reason she decided I was going to be the one true love of her life. Unfortunately she was the daughter of the director of internal medicine. When I didn't see things her way, she complained to her dad and to my trainer about me. She said she thought I was manic depressive and accused me of sexual harassment." "You don't seem bipolar to me." "I’m not. Maybe a little obsessive-compulsive.” “So that’s why you’re so thorough with my patients in ER.” Mercy settled more comfortably. “Tell me more about this nurse.” “She insisted that I was endangering the patients in my manic state. She charted orders I never gave and had other docs questioning my judgment. They held a meeting and decided I was to be reviewed by a psychiatrist, then they made sure I couldn’t make the appointment—lied about the time. I was fired soon after. When this nurse then turned up pregnant, she spread the word that I was the father and that I had seduced her." Mercy shook her head in amazement. "Surely nobody believed—I mean, you're not...you know...the seducing kind." He grinned. “Thank you. I think.” “Please tell me more. Your drama is distracting me from mine right now.” "The hospital tried to use the paternity suit against me later when I took them to court. And as far as I know, there has only been one Immaculate Conception in history." Mercy raised her eyebrows. Lukas felt his face grow warm. "I'm a normal healthy male who happens to believe in purity before marriage and monogamy after." "You're a Christian." She made it sound almost like an accusation. "I am.” "My mother's a Christian," she said. "She has been since my father died. She's always preaching to me about things she's read in the Bible, great `spiritual truths' she's suddenly discovered. She doesn't push me too much, but I can tell I frustrate her at times because of my beliefs." "What do you believe?" She shot him a warning glance. "Don't you start, too." "I'm not. I'm asking what you believe." "I'm not sure you would call it belief. Maybe you'd call it lack of belief." She glanced over at her sleeping daughter and shook her head. "I know this is trite but I still have trouble believing in a so-called loving God who would allow so much injustice in my life and my daughter's." "I felt that way after I watched my mother die of cancer,” Lukas said. “She was a great lady who helped half the people in town over the years. It's hard to watch your loved ones hurting." "Did you ever come to terms with it?" Mercy asked. He shrugged. "I'm sure you don't want to hear my `great spiritual truths' any more than you want to hear your mother's." "I'll humor you this once." "It was a gradual thing. It took place over the months of grieving after Mom's death. Even as I continued to lay blame at God's door, I became aware of His patience with me—not only in the Bible, but in the fellow believers in my church who continued to love and support me emotionally, even though I wasn't always nice or faithful in attendance. One elderly lady in my parents' church came to talk to me one day. I asked her why a loving God would allow so much suffering." Mercy focused on him more intently. “What did she say?" "She asked if I would have preferred a dictatorship." Mercy flitted her fingers through the air. “I've heard all about that from Mom. Adam and Eve were given a free will and chose to sin. And now we're paying for their sin." "No, we're paying for our own. Everyone but Christ has chosen sin from the beginning of time." "What do you call sin?" "Do you want my own personal interpretation?" "The Ten Commandments are based on two rules, which are to love God and to love your neighbor. If you do these two things, you'll never break any other of God's laws." "So since we've broken these laws," Mercy said dryly, "God's going to make us pay. He punishes us. We either love Him or else." He understood the bitterness in her voice. "I have to remind myself often that suffering was not in God's original plan," he told her. "It doesn't seem fair, but my father once reminded me that we should look for God in the one who's hurting, not in the cause of pain itself.” Mercy held his gaze. “You believe that?" “Absolutely. Do you think I'm crazy?" She thought for a moment, then shook her head. "No. I think you’re strong and wise.” Okay, wow. That sounded so good coming from her. “Not just smart, but wise,” she said. “You make belief almost reachable.” “It is.” “But what about my grandmother? Mom believed she wasn't a Christian. If you don't believe she went to heaven, do you think she's in hell?" Lukas leaned forward. "Mercy, before your grandmother died, she gained consciousness enough to speak. She told me to let her go, that she was ready. Only God can know for sure, but I had a very strong impression she was at peace, like my mother was when she died." Mercy's eyes filled again with tears. "But you can't know for sure." "Only God can know for sure. I'm still learning to trust Him during the times I have doubts, and I still fail, but He has proven that He has our ultimate good as a goal. Otherwise, there would have been no Christ, no death, no Resurrection." Mercy turned her attention back to her daughter, who slept within reach. "Thanks for telling me about your experience in Kansas City. I hate what they did to you. I hate medical politics." “I do too.” She sat in silence a little longer. "Do you know why Theodore has custody of Tedi?" "You were hospitalized for depression and he used it against you in court." She straightened a bit. “See what I mean about small towns?" "Where were you hospitalized?" "Lakeland in Springfield. My father had just died of alcoholic cirrhosis and Theodore and I were going through a nasty divorce at the time." Mercy leaned forward to check Tedi, then sat back. "I wasn't hospitalized for simple depression, I was forcibly committed for attempted suicide—which was a setup." He held her gaze. He'd heard most of this—after all, as she'd said, the gossip mill was alive and well in Knolls. He'd like to hear the truth from her. "I was depressed," she said. "Who wouldn't be in a situation like that?" "I suppose you overheard Theo's announcement about one of the whippings I received from my father. I had never come to terms with that, and it had happened a few times when Mom wasn't around. But I didn't attempt suicide. What I did do was take a couple of extra Valium to kill the pain. Unfortunately, in my drugged state I decided I needed help for depression and went to see the wrong doctor at the wrong time. He was a friend of Theo's." She spread her hands, as if the rest was obvious. "It was a divorce-court tactic. That doctor is out of practice now—he lost his license two years later for unprofessional conduct with a female patient.” “Good,” Lukas said. “Unfortunately, there are a lot of corrupt people like that in the world, and they haven't all had their hands slapped yet for their corruption.” Mercy looked down at the comb in her hand, then up at Lukas. "Thanks for getting all this stuff together for me.” "It was my pleasure." Mercy smiled. "Sorry if I sound as if I'm wallowing in self-pity. I wanted you to know the truth." "I already know the truth. You're the kind of physician who was willing to answer a disaster drill when no one else cared, and you were willing to spend your own money—which you probably couldn't afford—to help people in need. You’re a mama tiger whose cub loves her very much." She leaned back, as if to get a better look at him in the dim light. "Do you speak at motivational seminars?" "I say it as I see it." "I've been called a man-hater." He touched the stubby growth of hair on his face. "I've always considered myself a man. You've never been hateful with me." "You're...different." "Would you have gone to so much trouble to treat Clarence Knight if you truly hated men?" She seemed to think about it a moment. "I like Darlene. I admire them both." "Anyone would be distrustful of men if your ex were a typical example. I hope he isn't." “What about Jarvis George?” she asked. “What about the Littles? There are plenty of jerks to go around.” Lukas had to admit those were solid examples of jerkhood. He spread his hands. “I apologize for the male species.” She chuckled and her face lit up, and he enjoyed it. "Would you think I was horrible if I told you I enjoyed socking him in the mouth tonight?" she asked. "I wanted to do the same." She grimaced. "I'll pay for that moment of glory, though." "Do you think he'll file charges?" "And cut off his gravy train? No way. Why else do you think he's keeping Tedi?" "Maybe that's why he treats you so badly." “What do you mean?” she asked. “Male pride. It was obvious that the remark you made about your insurance covering Tedi's expenses made him angry. If he feels dependent on you he'll take it out on you and maybe even Tedi." Tedi stirred as if in response to the sound of her name. Mercy stood and leaned over her daughter. "Okay, Honey?" "Yeah," Tedi said hoarsely. She raised her head and looked around the room, her dark eyes apprehensive. "Dad here?" "No." Tedi relaxed and lay back. Mercy brushed a tendril of long dark hair back from her daughter's face. Lukas marveled at how much alike the two looked. Tedi's eyes even held the same wary sadness in them as Mercy's. "Do you want to talk about why you were in that barn?" Mercy asked. Tedi lay there for a moment without replying, almost as if she hadn't heard the question. Then she said, "I can't." Mercy touched her daughter's face. "You mean you're afraid to?" Tedi didn't reply. Mercy's face tightened. "Are you afraid of your father?" Tedi's eyes filled with tears. "You can't say anything to him. Please. I don't want you to go back to the hospital and I don't want to have to stop seeing you." "Is that why you didn't want me to try to get custody?" Tedi slowly nodded. Mercy touched Tedi's shoulder. "The bruises, honey. Did your dad do that?" Tedi's face contorted with more tears. "Please don't ask me, Mom." Lukas saw Mercy's fist clench, but her voice remained gentle. "I can’t let this keep happening.”

~~~

When religion enters a family environment, it can result in one of two things. It will bring the family closer, or separate it even further. We saw the greatest division in the United States, when, in 2015, the evangelical christian group leaders chose to get involved in politics and chose to support the republican party candidate. We have all seen what happened then, and what is happening now... Religion can be divisive...

Having God within you normally doesn't lead to anything but love, at least in your personal life. Take for instance, a new ER doctor who has just been hired at a community hospital--hired as a decision of the president and the board. Not participating in that decision was the present head of the ER... who brings in the pride and division... 

And then we have another doctor, Dr. Mercy, who is a wonderful talented doctor, who is already a member of the staff, as her grandmother was rushed to the hospital and was seen by the new ER Doctor Lucas Bower. The elderly woman had entered with a signed DNR decision, so the doctor prepared to work with her as she was possibly meeting her death.

That is, until her daughter got to the hospital that day. She was recently converted to Christianity and had been learning all of these amazing possibilities from her new book, The Bible. When she learned that the DNR was already being implemented, she stopped it immediately in rage, wanting the time for her mother to actually say...she...believed... Ultimately even Mercy who was called over to the ER, got involved and supported that her grandmother's wishes was to not attempt resuscitation. The mother was adamant and made her decision be the priority--after all, she had donated much to the hospital and was influential with top administrators...

What readers know was that Dr. Bower had discussed her condition with the grandmother and had known that her wishes was indeed to be allowed to die. And did... Her daughter was furious! She was in retribution mode for that doctor from that point on--readers watch as that drama all plays out...

In the meantime, Dr. Bower was becoming popular with both the staff and the patients even if several who had interacted with the main doctor there demanded that they continue only with the head of the department. What readers will read about is a hospital that has become dysfunctional, while a new president is attempting to regain stability and return it to the level of constant care demanded for the community...

The latest condemnation of Tylenol and all the other devastation events happening in today's medical world under the present Secretary of Health began to flood my mind, together with the chaos initiated by those who act on the basis of their need for power as opposed for the good of the patients... That description fit the head of the ER and we watch as he began his efforts to ensure that Dr. Bower would not be at the hospital for long... With life and death being a primary event in the ER environment, tension grew as power struggles move forward. Yet the constant flow of patients in and out creates a page-turning situation often...

In a different family drama for Dr. Mercy, we find that she has a daughter that she loves dearly, but who has been awarded custody to the father. The continuous, heartbreaking events with which the 10-year-old Tedi is forced to deal, based upon a decision that was based upon lies, will literally bring readers into emotional empathy for this child who was being forced into an environment that she just couldn't handle...

This is not the type of book which is easy to talk about... Past hurts and pain in multiple characters are exposed in both positive and negative ways, but always are tearjerkers... I became involved enough that it became a Personal Favorite for 2025. Let's face it when family dysfunctions occur, it is often caused by those within--or without--who manipulate situations to cause emotional divides. I hope the selected excerpt gives sufficient awareness to generate the emotional trauma within and surrounding this book. Highly recommended.

GABixlerReviews