Angels of Morgan Hill

AUDIE AWARD® for Best Inspirational Fiction!

It's 1947. Nine-year-old Jane Gable first lays eyes on young Milo Turner the day that her alcoholic father is buried.

The Turners are the first black family ever to live in Morgan Hill, TN and Jane can't understand why some people are angry.

When tragedy strikes the Turner household, the Gables are asked to make a decision that could rip their family apart. One path might open up a whole new world to them and bring them closer than ever. The other might bring them nothing but trouble and heartache. As Jane struggles to make sense of the changes in her community, she will soon learn about the angels who surround her, every day, in the most extraordinary—and ordinary—ways.

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Excerpt

Prologue

It was raining real hard the day we buried my daddy. Mama said it was because the angels were crying; but after hours of drenching downpour I doubted the angels were crying tears of joy about seeing Daddy in Heaven, but instead were just downright upset about having him there.

My father was a diabetic and a drunk—two conditions that don't get along well with each other. Doc Langley kept telling him the drinking was going to kill him but Daddy never listened. He was playing cards with Beef, Dewey and the rest of the boys one night when he had what they described as, "some sort of fit" and passed out. They thought he'd just drank too much so they let him be, head down on the table for the next twelve hours while they finished their game. By the time one of the boys got the good sense to think Daddy wasn't taking a cat nap (trust me when I say that taking just twelve hours to figure something out was a record breaking feat for them) they fetched the doctor, but Daddy was all but gone. Doc said it wouldn't have done any good if he'd gotten to him earlier—the alcohol poisoned his bloodstream and threw him into a diabetic coma. He was twenty-eight years old. I was nine.

The day we buried him was the same day I first saw a black face up close. East Tennessee didn't have slaves during the Civil War so there was never a large population of black people that settled there. Many lived in Greeneville but in nine years of living I'd never set foot anywhere else but Morgan Hill. My brother John and I were riding in the car with Aunt Dora when we got behind an old pick-up. Aunt Dora was looking for a way to pass when a tiny head popped up from inside the truck bed. He was a little boy, no older than John, and the color of pure milk chocolate. His head was round and bald and his eyes were as big and black as shiny marbles. He hung onto the tailgate and stared at us. I remembered hearing Mama talk about some coloreds who had moved to town but I'd never seen them and in that brief moment I found myself gawking at him. He almost lost his footing when the truck lunged over a rut in the road and as suddenly as he appeared, the little boy smiled real big, the biggest, whitest smile I'd ever seen, and ducked down into the truck before it pulled onto the drive that led to the Cannon Farm.

"Well look at that," Aunt Dora said. "There's them coloreds your mama said moved to town. They should shake things up." I didn't really know what she meant at the time but all that would change soon enough.

That was the spring of 1947 in Morgan Hill, Tennessee. Morgan Hill is seventy miles north of Knoxville and lays claim to the most beautiful rolling, green hills you'll ever see. Thomas Morgan was the first to settle there in 1810 and lived at the base of a small hill he deemed Morgan's Hill in honor of himself. The s was eventually dropped. Who knows why. In 1947 Morgan Hill boasted Walker's—a tiny general market with a single gas pump in front, the Morgan Hill Baptist Church, and the Langley School Building—named after Doc Langley's great granddaddy, which housed grades 1-12 in one hot, cramped brick building on top of the hill right in the middle of town. We were a poor community; some of the homes, ours included, that were hooked to electricity just three years earlier couldn't afford the electric bill so we continued to use coal oil lamps. We milked our own cows, butchered our own pigs, grew our own vegetables, and scraped out a living the best we knew how.

Now you might think that what you're about to read has a great deal to do with my father and growing up poor in east Tennessee but there is so much more—what captured my heart was the hope of belonging and the dream of family. Fifty-four years have passed and many of the details have blurred, but the memories of the heart are as alive for me today as they were then. The woman I am has a great deal to do with that ninth year of my life. It started out as any other year, nothing extraordinary but as each day unfolded it became remarkable in every way. There are times when I'm still amazed that we made it through. It has been said that every life has a story. This is my story, although it belongs to so many others for I was never alone. They were always with me… and still are today.

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Reading Guide

1. How would you describe Jane? What is her relationship like with Fran, John and Henry? How do those relationships change over the course of the book? At the beginning of the book what is Jane's outlook on life? What is Fran and John's? How do their perspectives change throughout the book?

2. One theme in the book is that God uses people to help shape our character. How did Lonnie Gable shape the lives (positively or negatively) of Fran, Jane and John? How was Henry and Loretta used? Willie Dean and Addy? Beef and the boys? Who has had a profound impact (good or bad) in your life? Share those as a group.

3. How would you describe Fran Gable? What is her relationship like with Jane and John? Henry and Loretta? What is it like with Joe Cannon and Addy? What role do you think faith plays in how Fran handles the circumstances in her life with Lonnie, then in the decision she faces about Milo?

4. Who is Henry Walker to Jane? How is his relationship different with Fran? How do the people of Morgan Hill view Henry? Was there anyone else within Jane's reach that could have possibly stepped into the role that Henry held in her life? If yes, who? If no, why was Henry different from the other men in the book? How did you feel when Henry saved Fran? How does Henry's character resonate with you?

5. Minor characters play an important part in the book. Besides the role of annoying aunt, how else does Aunt Dora play into Jane's life? What other secondary characters provide enriching elements in the book? Can you describe how one of those minor characters contributes to the storyline?

6. In what ways do you think the war changed Joe Cannon? What were Joe's strengths? Weaknesses? How do you think the fire that broke out on his property affected him long term? Why was it so hard for him to share his feelings for Fran?

7. Compare Fran Gable and Addy Turner (strengths, weaknesses, personality differences. How does Fran view herself and how does Addy view herself? How do they size up each other?) Why do you think they struck up a friendship with one another? What do you think the conversation about a cup of cold water has on Fran? Do you think Fran would have taken Milo into her home if she had not befriended Addy? Why or why not?

8. Describe Milo at the beginning of the book and note the changes he makes throughout the story. How does his relationship change with Jane and John? What do you think he really feels about Fran? Wouldn't it have been easier to live with the minister and his wife? Why would he ultimately decide to live with the Gables? How did that one decision forever change his life?

9. Why are people opposed to a little boy living with Fran and her children? How is the opposition of Beef and the boys different from Margaret's? How do Beef and the boys really view Fran? How do you think they view Joe Cannon and Henry? How do they view the Turners? How does Fran feel after Margaret's betrayal?

10. In what ways is the community of Morgan Hill a major character in the book? How does the landscape mold the lives of the characters? What part of Morgan Hill is most alive in the pages to you?

11. At the end of the book Jane is a grandmother. What did you think of her as a grown woman? What kind of mother do you think she was? How do you think her relationship with Henry changed after Fran married Joe? Is Jane the kind of woman you'd like to have over for dinner?

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