Dear Medora Cover
Dear Medora

I don’t know if authors are supposed to have a favorite among the books they have written.  Nevertheless, this is mine.  It is history, memoir, enchantment and pathos all in one.  Based upon Medora’s diaries and the letters that she and her mother exchanged during their all-too-frequent separations, it tells the story of Oysterville’s H.A. Espy Family during the early years of the 20th century as seen through the eyes of their eldest child, Medora — Mama’s dependable “right hand” — who died suddenly and unexpectedly just two weeks after her 17th birthday.  Although I found one of her diaries when I was twelve, it would be decades before I could find a way to have her tell her story.

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