Norma L. Brumbaugh

It is the day set aside to remember, the culmination of seventy-seven long years of missing you feelings. The thoughts come. Happy birthday, my dear Betty Jane. This is the day I feel closest to you, more than any other. At ninety-four years of age, Minka prays, “God, wherever Betty Jane is celebrating today, I pray that she is happy and has a good life. Although we only spent a few weeks of our lives together, I am thankful for those blessed moments.” She pauses and then spontaneously adds a postscript. “Lord, I’d like to see Betty Jane again before I die. . . .Please Lord.”
      This true story is one of sorrow borne with dignity and grace by a woman who faces troubles as they come. Her life is hard, starting in childhood when she loses her father. Work is how they survive. Hard work. At age sixteen, the unthinkable happens, she is raped. This ushers in a new level of hardship. For five weeks she loves and cares for her baby girl. Minka will give up her dear Betty Jane so her daughter can have a better life than her own. She never stops loving her daughter.
      This book made me weep. The pain is emotional in nature, the type that never fully leaves even though one picks up the pieces and life goes on. Yet, the person can never quite go back to who they were before nor would they entirely want to. For close to twenty years, Minka writes letters to the adoption home with hope for a little word of her dear Betty Jane.
      Written by Minka’s granddaughter and with a middle insert of family photos, this remarkable story is about a remarkable woman and her indomitable spirit. The cover photo is of Minka’s hands and the photo she is holding is of her with Betty Jane on the day they had to say goodbye in 1929. In the end, dreams do come true.