When Robins Weep: The Christmas Tree Lady - Softcover

Peggy Poe Stern

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1595130535 ISBN 13: 9781595130532

Publisher: Moody Valley, 2004

Synopsis

A happenstance encounter between an Appalachian mountain girl and a Florida developer embarks them on a romantic relationship. From Chapter 6:

He hadn t expected to see the old, white ford truck pulled over on the side of the road. He saw the rear left tire was flat and had no intention of stopping to help, until he saw a girl pulling a jack from the back of the truck. As he passed her up, it felt like something had jerked him by the neck. He pulled into a wide spot, turned around, and went back.

He got out and walked to the truck where she was squatting on the ground trying to fit the screw jack under the axle. He opened his mouth to ask if he could be of assistance. When she looked up, the words stuck in his throat. She was the girl in his dreams. The one he had waited on forever. Her eyes were full of something that wouldn t let him look away. He just stood there and stared down at her without saying a word.

I ve never changed a flat before, she said.

I have, several years back, he told her.

You re the only one that s stopped to help me.

I m glad.

He bent down and took the jack from her hand and his finger touched her skin. His body felt it, and he silently cursed himself as reality hit. This girl was a child, hardly older than his own daughter. He had no business feeling what he just felt. Still, the feeling thrilled him, for it had been a long time absent.

He fitted the jack under the axle. She remained beside him. He smelled her perfume. It was delicate and reminded him of soap. Another whiff and he realized it wasn t perfume at all. It was soap. His eyes went to her left hand. She was wearing a plain, cheap looking ring, but he wasn t sure if it was a wedding band. It could have come from a cracker-jack box.

You married? He tried to sound off handed in his question.

She looked at his left hand and shrugged her shoulders. Kinda.

How can you be kinda married?

I had a husband for twenty-four hours.

Divorced?

Nope.

Widowed?

Not that I ve been told.

He remembered the war and came up with the right conclusion. War bride?

Yeah.

Married him the day before he shipped out?

Yeah.

Did it make you happy?

She shrugged her shoulders again, looking at the lug nut he was trying to loosen. Reckon it made him happy.

He didn t stop the small laugh. He had intended to, but hadn t caught it in time.

About this title

About the Author

Mountain author, Peggy Poe Stern, writes novels steeped with Appalachia Peggy Poe Stern is a worker and a listener Peggy grew up in a remote hollow in the Appalachian Mountains of Northwest North Carolina, and she has spent most every day of her life absorbed in some type of farm work. Her heritage shows from head to toe -- in her tough, work-worn hands, and in the easy, flowing cadence of her mountain voice. Always curious, she wants to know everyone's story and has a knack of getting it -- from the old timers of her childhood to all the other people she has come across since -- from laborers to affluent developers. One cannot encounter Peggy without sharing stories. Many of her stories have roots in her own experiences: Her dad grew beans and raised livestock. Her mother worked at a local factory to supplement the farming income. Relatives, extended family, and church provided a unique atmosphere for living and learning the old mountain traditions. She married at seventeen, finished high school, and started a family. She furthered her education at Appalachian State, but the responsibilities of six children quickly made formal study impossible. She did manage to write a few manuscripts on an old portable typewriter. Her husband teased about her spelling and sentence structure, causing her to become somewhat disillusioned with writing. She turned to crafts to assist in the struggle for survival, marketed her crafts through Blue Ridge Hearthside Crafts Cooperative, and became a board member for the organization. Moving to her own farm, she continued to raise her own food, adding a milk cow and other livestock. Tobacco was the main cash crop. Christmas trees were planted to assist the children through college. Being active in agriculture, Peggy became a board member of Farm Bureau Insurance, the local Christmas Tree Association, NC Agricultural Extension Advisory Council, and NC State University. These positions enabled her to experience some of the life beyond the mountains. For more than thirty years, Peggy assisted her husband -- a land surveyor-- with the field and office work. Through contacts made with a developer client, she started selling her Christmas trees on a lot in Naples, Florida, becoming known there as the Christmas Tree Lady. The survey business gave Peggy additional insight on the impacts -- good and bad -- to the community as the mountains became a tourist and second home destination. As the children grew up, went to college, married and had families of their own, there became time for writing. Wanting to know if she was good enough to write seriously, she attended many classes and joined a local writers group. During a luncheon, Terry Kay told her "All words are the same. It's how you use them that makes the difference". He also advised her to write something that wasn't personal. Her first (2003) published novel, Heaven-High and Hell-deep, resonates with Peggy's unique strong voice and storytelling ability. Always resourceful, Peggy decided she would not only write books, but she'd make and market them herself. Consequently, every book is uniquely hers: she writes the stories, paints the cover picture, then prints and binds each one at her farm. Whether from her experiences, shared stories, or from the spirits of the past; characters keep evolving in Peggy's imagination. Then they nag her until she relates their story. Often she is working on seven or eight novels simultaneously, completing one for the character that becomes the most persistent. They just have to deal with Peggy casting their stories in her beloved mountains.

Edition details

• Publisher: Moody Valley
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 1595130535
• ISBN 13: 9781595130532
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 392