Farewell Gift

About the Book

In Virginia, Mancie is forced to leave Joseph the man she wants to marry. She is placed onto the emigrant train, headed for Plainview, Texas. Grieving, Mancie sews a piece of Joseph’s shirt into her pillow. Then she meets the handsome Abbe who helps her understand the new country. The family deals with rattlesnakes, dust storms and a hailed-out wheat crop, Small Willa Ruth falls from the windmill tower and is taken up dead. When they go back to Virginia Mancie becomes involved with Joseph. Her unwanted pregnancies are the most devastating. Hidden away in a cellar. Mancie seeks control and begins again by accepting her gifts.

About the Author

Bettye Hammer Givens, Director, Summer in France Writing Workshop; finalist 2000 PEN Fiction; Poet Laureate Woman of Letters; Novels: Diary of Emily Saidouili , Farewell Gift. Presented International de Pitura e poesy, Edizione Cultural Lettere Poemi by Culture Minister in Italy - Switzerland, E. Este. Won fellowship, the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation; Fiction finalist Moondance Film Festival, taught Festival Creativity class. Short stories, essays: American Airlines magazine, the Christian Science Monitor etc. Three commissioned plays. President 2004 World Congress of Poetry. In Malta, Knighted Dame of Grace by the Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jerusalem Knights of Malta. Member of the NY Dramatist Guild.