Whatever Happened to Mourning Free? Book 3 of the Olivia series

Historical Fiction, United States (1840s)

Women's Fiction

Note from the Author

Book 3 answers the question asked in its title and provides a narrative account of what happened to Olivia, Mourning, and Little Boy, but it is not a continuation of Book 2 in the same sense that Book 2 continues Book 1. Whatever Happened to Mourning Free? skips forward three generations and focuses on descendants of the Killion and Free families, who still face many of the problems with which Olivia and Mourning contended.

Readers who are impatient to find out what happened to Olivia and Mourning can feel free to skip ahead to that section, and then come back to the beginning section about Charlene, Reeves, and Charlie. Just search for the following text: Detroit, Michigan - May 24, 1843

Book Description

It's 1967 and Charlene Connor has just graduated from the University of Michigan, without her "Mrs." Her mother recently passed away and soon afterwards her father fled the silence to a new job on the other side of the state. So Charlene is going "home" to what is now an empty house.

Two things make this long, hot summer bearable: Reeves Valenti - the high school sweetheart she left behind - and the lawyer who unexpectedly knocks on her door, bringing information about the woman she idolizes - her great-great-great Aunt Olivia Killion. Charlene can't wait to get Olivia's journals from him and finally learn what happened to Olivia and her friend and partner Mourning Free; she doesn't know that the answer to that question will deepen the connection she feels to Olivia and bring a new person — and a fundamental change — into her life.

Is It Autobiographical?

No. Just for fun, I gave Charlene the shell of my life. I grew up in the Foundation, attended Edsel Ford High School, and began my college education in Ann Arbor. So on paper, Charlene and I have a lot in common. In fact, am I anything like her? No. Is my life anything like hers? In my dreams.