Heroine Interview for Doctor in Petticoats by Mary Connealy

» Posted on Aug 3, 2010 in Blog | Comments Off on Heroine Interview for Doctor in Petticoats by Mary Connealy


This week I’m hosting Mary Connealy with Doctor in Petticoats and Stephen Bly with Cowboy for a Rainy Afternoon. If you want to enter the drawings, please leave a comment on one of the post during the week with your email address. I will not enter you without
an email address (my way to contact you if you win). If you don’t want to leave an email address, another way you can enter is to email me at margaretdaley@gmail.com. The drawings end Sunday (August 8th) evening.

Interview with the heroine from Doctor in Petticoats by Mary Connealy:

1. Beth McClellen, tell me the most interesting thing about you.
I was born with a gift for healing. I’ve always had a special touch with people and animals. I’m not a woman to be told what to do either. I had a fight on my hands, but I talked my ma and pa into letting me go back east to study to be a doctor…well, a nurse really. But I found a doctor who let me work with him. He knew I was going home to a small Texas frontier town with no doctor at all, so he taught me a lot. Now I’ve just got to convince the people in Mosqueros, Texas, and my stubborn father, that it’s safe to let me treat patience.

2. What do you do for fun?
I love riding. I can still handle a horse and cattle as well as most men. I love spending time alone in the rugged places. Testing my skills tracking animals, sneaking up on timid wildlife. When I was younger, my sisters and I used to work hard learning all the skills a tough Texas cowgirl needs. How to get a gun into action fast, how to read sign like the written word, how to drop a loop on a calf and run a branding iron.

3. What do you put off doing because you dread it?
Mostly my sisters and I all put off giving my father any news having to do with boys who want to come calling. Pa has never met a man he thought was good enough for his girls. But then, if Pa can scare them off, maybe they’re aren’t good enough.
Now I’ve met Alex and Pa doesn’t seem to scare him much. Of course Alex is a loco as a rabid swamp rat, so he might not have the sense to run.

4. What are you afraid of most in life?
I’m not afraid of much. It’s just not how I live my life. If something scares me, I attack instead of run. Well, sometimes I run until I can turn and attack but that’s not fear. I’ve spent a bit of time scared that no one would let me be a doctor, being a woman and all, but even then I’m not really afraid, I’m just trying hard to change their minds and I won’t quit until I do.

5. What do you want out of life?
To be allowed to heal. It’s something that’s inside of me and always has been. I have a real heart for helping those who are sick or hurt. God gave it to me and no man is going to tell me I’m not meant to use this gift of healing.

6. What is the most important thing to you?
My family. We grew up working shoulder to shoulder digging a good life out of Texas wilderness and there’s no one I’d rather have at my side in a crisis than one of my sisters. Leaving them to study in Boston was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. And now I’m heading back and I find out my big sister Mandy is getting married. I feel like I made a mistake choosing a life that took me so far away from her. But it had to be done. And if I had to grow up, then it stands to reason Mandy did, too.

7. Do you read? If so, what is your favorite type of book to read?
All my reading has been medical books for the last four years. When we were little a Bible was the only book we had in the house. I’m not much of a reader, because I want to be outside. I work hard all day and at night if I sit down for longer then a few minutes I’m asleep in my chair.

8. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
Nothing. I’m proud to be Sophie McClellen’s daughter. I’ve been raised to be strong, to chase after what I want and to take care of myself. I don’t waste time dreaming.

9. Do you have a pet? If so, what is it and why that pet?
I love animals. I did a fair amount of the doctoring of the animals on our ranch. My pa used to ask for my help, especially when he had a fractious horse who needed looking after. I could calm the animal while Pa did the treating. But soon enough I was doing the treating and the calming. No one on the ranch was better. No one!

10. If you could travel back in time, where would you go and why?
You’re asking me to spend time dreaming again and I just don’t want to. Why bother? I’m living in the time and place God sat me down and I’m making the most of it.