Book Synopsis
Charles Henry Wilson stands over the fresh graves of his grandparents, Henry and Jennie, newly buried in the Hilltop Cemetery of Independence, Oregon. It is the month of April 1922, and the temperature hovers just above a chill fifty degrees. Charles is only thirteen years old.
Orphaned at birth and growing up on a farm, Charles is accustomed to hardship. In the past years, he’s stood alongside his grandmother as she struggled with her husband’s stroke, and bore the weight of Henry’s subsequent paralysis and mental illness. Charles’ loving grandparents have cared for him as their own and given him the only home he’s ever known, but now he’s lost them both in the same week, and he bears the burden alone.