Heroine Interview from Angel of the Cove by Sandra Robbins

» Posted on Aug 23, 2012 in Blog | Comments Off on Heroine Interview from Angel of the Cove by Sandra Robbins

This week I’m hosting  Lenora Worth with The Diamond Secret, Kathi Macias with The Deliverer, Sandra Robbins with Angel of the Cove, and LoRee Peery with Found in the Woods. If you want to enter the drawings for the books, 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 26th) evening.

Interview with the heroine from Angel of the Cove by Sandra Robbins:

1. Anna Prentiss, tell me the most interesting thing about you.

I have wanted to be a nurse ever since I was a little girl. I was really excited when I heard that Bellevue Hospital in New York had begun a nursing school program. The first time I applied I didn’t get accepted, but my father encouraged me to try again. I did, but unfortunately he had died before I received the letter I’d been accepted. Now my brother is the head of our family, and he thinks I’m too immature to go to a large city like New York. I haven’t ever been far from our farm in east Tennessee, but I know I can make it in New York. He has finally agreed, at the urging of my uncle, to let me go to Cades Cove, a remote valley in the Smoky Mountains and spend the summer living and working with a mountain midwife. If she gives me a good report at the end of the summer, he’ll agree to pay my expenses for school. I’m determined to prove to him I have the grit to make a good nurse.

2. What do you do for fun?

The fun that I have might not seem exciting to some people. I have always lived on a farm, and there are always chores to do. Since coming to the Cove, I spend my days with Granny Lawson, the midwife I’m visiting, and she always has something for me to do. I’m learning that life in the mountains is hard, and summer is a time for preparing for the winter. Every spare minute away from her nursing responsibilities is spent in preserving food from her garden or picking berries to preserve.

3. What do you put off doing because you dread it?

I haven’t been too good about writing letters home since I’ve been in the Cove. I’m angry with my brother because I feel like he’s keeping money from me that our father promised I could have. I haven’t wanted to correspond with him, but I know Granny Lawson will be doing that soon. I’m concerned about what she will tell him about me.

4. What are you afraid of most in life?

I’m afraid of failing at being a nurse. Granny is not only a midwife, she’s the person everyone in the Cove goes to when they’re sick or hurt. In my first experience helping her, I panicked and ran from the room. I expected her to send me packing, but she didn’t. She’s the most loving person I’ve ever encountered in my life.

5. What do you want out of life?

I want to go to New York and graduate from the nursing school at Bellevue. Then I want to work as a nurse in their maternity ward. It’s the first one in the country, and I want to be a part of the wonderful work they’re doing there.

6. What is the most important thing to you?

The most important thing has been to work as a nurse in New York, but now that I’m in the mountains I find that changing. I’m beginning to see that there are people right here in Cades Cove who need my help. Maybe God has brought me here so that I can see what His will for my life is. Besides, there’s a handsome young preacher whose smile makes my heart race.

7. Do you read? If so, what is your favorite type of book to read?

I didn’t bring any books to the Cove with me, but Granny has some whose pages I’ve devoured since arriving. They are old volumes about the mountain herbs and roots that have been used for generations for medicinal purposes. It’s opened up a new world to me that I find fascinating.

8. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

I would not be so reserved around people I don’t know. When I came to the Cove, I expected the people to be unfriendly because I was a stranger, and they scared me. I soon learned they were just as scared of me as I was of them and that they were people with the same hopes and problems as everyone else. When I learned to be friendly, they accepted me with open arms.

9. Do you have a pet? If so, what is it and why that pet?

I had a dog at home, but I was unable to bring him with me. I miss him a lot, but I’m sure my brother is taking good care of him.

10. If you could travel back in time, where would you go and why?

I wasn’t born when the Civil War took place, but I would love to have been there with Clara Barton as she nursed the wounded soldiers. She served on some of the fiercest battlefields of the war and came to be known as the Angel of the Battlefield. I’m honored that the people of Cades Cove had named me Angel of the Cove