Kirjahaku

Helmi (short for Wilhelmina) is only a few months shy of turning 100 years old. But before she invites Old Man Death into her parlor, she is determined to recount the highlights of her life since her birth in 1920. Being the oldest of ten children, Helmi is the person upon whom her siblings depend, and she takes her position seriously with a combination of iron will and a sense of humor.She was born in the eastern Oklahoma panhandle where the dustbowl left the earth infertile. When she was almost four years old, she and her family moved to Isabella County, Michigan, where her German-born father started a dairy farm. She became a veterinarian--a bold step into a male-dominated profession in the early years of WWII. She found a job in Chippewa County in Michigan's upper peninsula where she began a new life filled with great joy, profound loss, and incomparable love.

By the middle of the second decade of the twentieth century, Rene had reached her mid-thirties. Her life had fallen apart, and she needed emotional help. Lake Superior, her lake, was calling her back to the small shoreline town of Grand Marais in Michigan's Upper Peninsula where she had grown up. It was there that a nine-year-old boy named Alvie Wybel began to put Rene's life back together in a most unusual-and unworldly-sort of way. (review)"An historical romance novel with a twist; it fuses humor, suspense, war, and otherworldly phenomena. The expert convergence of fact and fiction, especially the Nazi occupation, is genius. The character development and writing style are exceptional. The plot is superb, as it takes an excellent turn (which I didn't see coming)." J. Ibiam for Readers' Favorite