Overview

It was not easy to grow up in Pennsylvania coal country in 1918. Many teenagers quit school before graduating so they could help support their families. Their dreams of a better future were dim. There just weren't many opportunities if you didn't have a diploma, especially if English was not your first language. When the unexpected chance came to live and be educated in an orphanage, the opportunity was too great to pass up. Although Tillie and Wasyl felt guilty about leaving their widowed mother and their siblings and even though they were not actually orphans, they were poor, they were children of Ukrainian immigrants, and their father was dead. According to the church, they qualified for the orphanage. Their big sister, Ann, determined ot become a nurse, will allow nothing to stop her from moving to New York. Mama is losing the income of three of her children all at once, but she realizes that this is something each child must do, just as she had to take a leap of faith to cross an ocean at eighteen years old and come to America. Everyone agrees to stay in touch and come home for the holidays, but those dreams are shattered when the Spanish flu sweeps the nation and quarantine keeps them apart. Money is tighter than ever, but life in coal country has never been easy. This is just one more challenging thing they must do, so they make the best of their situation. Creativity is born when you don't have any other option, and sometimes God leads in unexpected ways. Follow the steps of these teenagers as they navigate through illness, isolation, and loss to overcome obstacles and forge ahead toward a future bright with possibility. In this richly historical novel, Tillie, Wasyl, and Ann learn how to discover and create their own destiny -- and that faith and family ties stretch far beyond blood. THE ORPHAN YEARS: While We Are Absent One from the Other is historical fiction, but it is built on countless stories of real people who came of age in the shadow of the Pennsylvania coal mines.

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