Once A Midwife

 Patricia Harman wrote Once A Midwife. This is actually the third in a series about Patience Hester who is a midwife married to a veterinarian in West Virginia during World War Two. They live on a farm with their four children, horses, cows, chickens and two dogs. In the back of the farmhouse they have a baby house where expectant mothers can labor, give birth, and rest for a few days before going home. Her husband has a thriving veterinary practice and all seems to be going well until Daniel is asked to sign up for the draft. He already served in World War One. At age 42 he will not be called to serve. Daniel saw much action in Germany in the first war and he vowed to change. Daniel is now a pacifist. He could sign up as a conscientious objector but he refuses. Eventually he is put in prison. Patience has to deal with the farm, the family, her work as a midwife, and the people who scorn her and her children because her husband is a draft dodger. I listened to the audio version of the book which was fine except sometimes it included songs. The person who read the story would sing the songs aloud. She is not the best singer. And when she imitated one of Patience's children singing a song, it was terrible. All that is fine if I am at home or walking alone on the trail. With the colder weather and the dangerous wind chills, I have been walking inside instead of outside. So when the "This Little Light of Mine" song starts playing out of my phone in the middle of the Miller Hill Mall, it is downright embarrassing. I should really get ear buds or blue tooth or something so no one else can hear my book. I enjoyed the story; just not the singing.