Patricia Harman's Once a Midwife follows Patience Murphy. Patience has a young family with her new husband Daniel and a thriving practice as a midwife in her beloved Appalachian town. But Patience and Daniel's happy existence is thrown into chaos when the U.S. enters World War II. Daniel, a staunch pacifist after fighting in World War I, refuses to serve as a soldier again. When he's called in to fight, Daniel dodges the draft and ends up imprisoned during a brutal and difficult winter. Alone and struggling, Patience must support their family and fight for her husband's release, all the while continuing her midwifery practice in one of the most tumultuous times in U.S. history.
Today, we welcome a guest post by Patricia Harman!
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When we first moved to our farm near rural Spencer, West Virginia in the 1970's, we were a bunch of rag-tag hippies bent on saving the world from war, racism, sexism, capitalism, the depletion of natural resources, and just about every other evil we could think of. Our goal was nothing short of revolutionary. We wanted to find a way to live simply on the earth as a non-violent community and to do whatever we could to help a region known for its poverty.
I wasn’t a midwife or an author then, but I was almost a children’s librarian. Off and on for years in Spencer I was the story lady on Wednesday afternoons. Partly, I just enjoyed reading aloud. Partly, I love kids. Partly, I wanted to encourage children to care about books the way I do.
It was books that inspired our movement: Mahatma Gandhi’s autobiography, Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, George Orwell’s 1984, Tolstoy’s War and Peace, Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, Wendell Berry’s The Unsettling of America.
It was books that showed us how to survive: Living the Good Life by Helen and Scott Nearing, Diet for a Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappe, The Owner-Built Home by Ken Kern, The Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening by Rodale Press.
It was books that taught us to care about others; To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, The Color Purple by Alice Walker, The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank.
And it was books, on winter evenings, reading aloud to our kids by kerosene light, that gave us comfort in troubled times: Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder, A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle, Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White.
And where did all these books come from? In Spencer, there was no bookstore on Main Street and no online bookseller, either—because there was no “on-line.”
It was the local library.
And where did we meet with other hippie homesteaders when we had our potlucks to discuss the natural food co-op that we’d started?
It was in the basement of the local library.
And where did I teach the first natural childbirth classes in the county?
You guessed it—sitting in a circle of folding chairs at the local library.
Community center, repository of knowledge, fountain of inspiration, home of children’s programs…in every city and small town, we need such sanctuaries. As a former “story lady,” I remind everyone to celebrate and protect your library and remember to thank a librarian today!
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Thanks, Patricia! Be sure to check out Once a Midwife, out today!
-Lainey