By the Light of a Memory

An old-fashioned girl in a modern world, Laura Beth Chandler maintains her thriving business alongside the countless demands of motherhood. Stress overload paired with an unforeseen mishap brings her globetrotting ex-husband back onto the scene and prompts a trip to her homeplace in the Piney Woods of East Texas. Granddaddy Jim Pate and his aunts welcome her with open arms and share family stories dating back to the World War I-era Spanish Influenza epidemic. They recall the Great Depression, the World War II home front, and the post-war transition from cotton to beef cattle in East Texas agriculture. Delving into the legacy of a wheelchair bound family matriarch, Missy Pate, Laura Beth uncovers a bygone way of life with its tales of horses, hound dogs, and unstoppable grit.