Barbara Belseth grew up in Hudson, Massachusetts surrounded by her warm extended Norwegian family. Beside ‘the lake’ where she spent summers with cousins and family, her favorite place was the library. Barbara studied English at UMass and then spent nearly 20 years aloft as a flight attendant for a major airline. She returned to the classroom to teach English to high school language learners. Retired today, after teaching students from over 50 different countries, Barbara lives in northern Virginia near her family and grandchildren, where she is involved with community bible study and writing and quilting.
The Blackstone River Valley in 1918, the seat of the Industrial revolution, offers employment to hopeful immigrants. This new life in America also comes with unexpected danger and problems. While the Great War moves toward its bloody end, the Spanish Flu ravages the population in Massachusetts.
How will Norwegian immigrants Trygve and Valle (rhymes with ‘Bali’ ) Lee thrive and keep their faith in God as they face this danger and the fragility of life? Will the surgical skills of the 1920s keep Trygve alive? The family will meet fear head on in the cold waters of the North Atlantic on a perilous journey back to Norway, only to discover that the struggle to acclimate to American culture is not as difficult as returning to their family back in Norway.
Follow Lee family as they attempt to put down roots in small town America, far from family and cut off from their Norwegian community. The Lee children comically flourish as they traverse the conflict of cultures. Plenteous Grace is indeed poured out on Trygve, Valle, and their three children. AMAZON