A Quilt for Jenna

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Authors: Patrick E. Craig

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HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS

EUGENE, OREGON

Cover by Garborg Design Works, Savage, Minnesota

Cover photo © Chris Garborg; author photo by William Craig—Craig Propraphica

Published in association with the literary agency of the Steve Laube Agency, LLC, 5025 N. Central Ave., #635, Phoenix, Arizona 85912.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

A QUILT FOR JENNA

Copyright © 2013 by Patrick E. Craig

Published by Harvest House Publishers

Eugene, Oregon 97402

www.harvesthousepublishers.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Craig, Patrick E., 1947-

A quilt for Jenna / Patrick E. Craig.

p. cm.—(Apple Creek dreams series; bk. 1.)

ISBN 978-0-7369-5105-0 (pbk.)

ISBN 978-0-7369-5106-7 (eBook)

1. Quiltmakers—Fiction. 2. Traffic accidents—Fiction. 3. Amish—Ohio—Fiction.

4. Foundlings—Fiction. I. Title.

PS3603.R3554Q55 2013

813'.6—dc23

2012026072

All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, digital, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

To my daughter Cheryl and my granddaughter Terra Lynn

A
CKNOWLEDGMENTS

To my wonderful wife, Judy, for her tireless proofing and editing work on the first six drafts of this book and her ceaseless prayer on its behalf.

To Dan Kline for his initial editing of this book, his great suggestions and input, and his invaluable friendship.

To Sue Tornai for keeping me in the active voice.

C
ONTENTS

Acknowledgments

A Note from Patrick Craig

The First Day

Chapter One: The Quilt

Chapter Two: Bobby

Chapter Three: The Crash

The Second Day

Chapter Four: The Journey Begins

Chapter Five: The Storm

Chapter Six: Apple Creek

Chapter Seven: Deep Roots

Chapter Eight: Reuben

Chapter Nine: Changes

Chapter Ten: Troubles

Chapter Eleven: Henry

Chapter Twelve: Summer Dreams

Chapter Thirteen: The Heart of the Beast

The Third Day

Chapter Fourteen: Missing

Chapter Fifteen: The Trouble with Reuben

Chapter Sixteen: Friends

Chapter Seventeen: A Quilt for…

Chapter Eighteen: Hard Choices

Chapter Nineteen: Trials and Tests

Chapter Twenty: Looking Up

Chapter Twenty-One: Into the Storm

Chapter Twenty-Two: Contact

Chapter Twenty-Three: The Battle of the Ridge

Chapter Twenty-Four: The Journey Home

Chapter Twenty-Five: The Decision

Chapter Twenty-Six: The Shadow of His Wings

The Fourth Day

Chapter Twenty-Seven:
Die Heilberührung

Chapter Twenty-Eight: When Johnny Comes Marching Home

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Reunion

Chapter Thirty: Wedding Day

Chapter Thirty-One: To Every Thing There Is a Season

Chapter Thirty-Two: Jenna

Chapter Thirty-Three: A Test of Faith

Chapter Thirty-Four: Goodbye, My Darling Girl

Chapter Thirty-Five: Flight into Darkness

Chapter Thirty-Six: A Place to Hide

Chapter Thirty-Seven: A New Day

The Fifth Day

Chapter Thirty-Eight: To Seek and Save the Lost

Chapter Thirty-Nine: I Once Was Lost…

Chapter Forty: …But Now I'm Found

Chapter Forty-One: Going Home

Epilogue

Discussion Questions

About Patrick E. Craig

A Note from Patrick Craig

A
PPLE
C
REEK IS A REAL PLACE
. It is a village set in the heart of Wayne County, Ohio, eleven miles from Dalton and ten miles from Wooster. It has real streets and real people.

Apple Creek and the surrounding area are home to a large Amish community and have been since the mid-1800s. Not far to the east lies Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where the Amish first settled in America in 1720.

I chose Apple Creek as the setting for
A Quilt for Jenna
while doing research on the Amish in Ohio and in particular on Amish quilt makers. Apple Creek, Dalton, and Wooster are known for the marvelous Amish quilts produced there. Dalton has one of the biggest quilting fairs in Ohio.

A town named Apple Creek was just too good to pass up as a location, so I started my story there. I used the actual streets and highways, the localities, and even local family names in
A Quilt for Jenna
even though all the characters are fictitious and not based on real people.

As I mentally planted myself in the heart of Apple Creek, the characters in the book began to spring out of the earth, fully grown, with lives and stories, joys and sorrows. The story was easy to write because it seemed as though I were reading someone's journal as I wrote it.

The more I explored Apple Creek, the more I realized how connected I was to the village. My great-great-grandfather, Anthony Rockhill, was born forty-nine miles from Apple Creek in Alliance, Ohio, in 1828. Apple Creek is eighty-five miles from the site of Fort Henry, West Virginia, on the Ohio River. Fort Henry was the site of Betty Zane's run for life during the British and Indian siege during the Revolutionary War in 1782. The book
Betty Zane
by Zane Grey was a childhood favorite and still has a place on my bookshelf.

As a child I poured over stories about Lewis Wetzel and Jonathan Zane and followed them through the trackless Ohio wilderness only a few miles from what would become the village of Apple Creek. Though I've never been there, I feel I know the area like the back of my hand. And so it was no coincidence that I came to choose Apple Creek. Though the characters in this book are fictional, they have become very real to me, as I hope they will become to you.

And by the way, the horrific storm in
A Quilt for Jenna
is also real. Historians have called it the Great Appalachian Storm or even the Blizzard of the Century. At the time, of course, the people who lived in the path of this monster didn't have a name for it. They just hunkered down and tried to endure it.

I hope the story of Jerusha Springer and her struggle to survive will touch a place in your heart as you read. Perhaps something of your own life will be changed for the better by the end of the book. So as I think about it, maybe it was coincidence that I chose Apple Creek. After all, coincidence is just God choosing to remain anonymous.

W
EDNESDAY
, N
OVEMBER
22, 1950

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