Merrill J. Davies

Sixteen-year-old Jessie Thompson reluctantly moves with her mother and older sister to Savannah, Georgia, in the summer of 1943 to work as a welder on the Liberty Ships. Her main goal is to survive long enough to return to Alabama and finish high school. But will she be able to survive when tragedy strikes and she has to learn how to "weld" her life back together amid the uncertainties of the war?

When Katie (A.K.A. Agatha) follows her counselor's advice and calls home after being missing for two years, she has no idea of the struggles that will follow as she reconnects with her family. Her first challenge is to convince her friend Kirk in Nashville that she has no romantic interest in him, a task that proves more difficult and dangerous than she could ever have imagined.Once back in Eastern Kentucky with her family, regaining their trust depends on being able to dig into her past and find out why she would have ever left her husband and two precious children. The one person who holds the key to her past, her Aunt Esther, seems reluctant to talk. However, when Esther finally gains the courage to tell Katie the shocking facts about her early childhood trauma, her story allows the family to begin the long healing process.