There comes a time when you just can't put it off any longer. It was so for widow Anna Gingerich. With her sons ready to move from their Amish farm in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania to Montana and her declining health, Anna felt she had to write her only and estranged daughter, Esther, to see if she would come to see her.
After getting the letter, Esther just didn't really know what to do. Filled with guilt at being away for so long, missing her father's funeral and years of excuses, she knew she had to go back, yet feared a bitter welcome there.
Esther's life was in Seattle with her Amish Shoppe and being with her beloved daughter, Holly and her dreams of making it big as a stockbroker. How would such a sophisticated city woman, like Holly, react to going for a visit to a place that didn't even have electricity! Except for being in the shower, Holly was always on her cellphone or her laptop!
For herself, thirty-something Holly was not really having a great time. Laid off from her job that was going nowhere, close to the max on her credit cards and with no real love in her life, except for the flirtatious ladies' man, Larry Haarberg, and now Holly was expected to handle this shocking news! Holly was furious with her mother! Not only had she been lied to all her life about their small family, she now finds out she had a living grandmother, Amish roots, and oodles of aunts, uncles, and cousins! All the people she had wanted in her life when she was a child. How could her mother have done this to her?
Yet, despite her anger at her mother, Holly realizes her mother couldn't cope with going home alone without her. Esther doesn't drive and had never flown before. But what would happen when they arrive? Why was her mother so scared about going home? Is it possible that what is feared the most can be a blessing in disguise? Can there really be a second chance to find love and a way home again?
With her solid knowledge of Amish customs and families and a keen sense of strong plot development, Kate Lloyd has crafted a very different and inspiring Amish story that weaves the stories of three generations of women finding a way to let love and forgiveness bridge a path back into each other's hearts. Amish story fans as well as those who believe in the power of love and forgiveness are sure to enjoy the intriguing story found within LEAVING LANCASTER! Enjoy!
Can a splintered Amish family reconcile?
More than anything else, thirty-something Holly Fisher longs
for family. Growing up in Seattle without a dad or
grandparents, she wonders what it would be like to have a
heritage, a place of belonging. Holly is furious when her
mother, Esther, reveals a long-kept secret: Hollyβs
grandmother and uncles are still alive and begging Esther to
return. And Holly is shocked when she learns that the family
sheβs never known lives on a Lancaster, Pennsylvania,
farmβas part of an Amish community her mother once abandoned.
Guilt-ridden Esther, terrified to see her mother and
siblings, begs Holly to accompany her on a visit to Estherβs
mother before she dies. But can their journey to a
conflicting world heal their emotional wounds and finally
bring them home?
Set in the heart of contemporary Lancaster County, Leaving
Lancaster explores the power of forgiveness, family
reconciliation, and love where least expected.
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