| From Dream to Nightmare to Hope, A Story of | | | | adoptions, or to become farm workers or |
| Promise, Hope, and Miracles | | | | household servants. |
| Cora A. Seaman's new book "The Making of Mary | | | | The story becomes continues by relating the |
| Ann" is based on a true story. Mary Ann's story | | | | destinies of Daisy, Greta, Tula, and Mathilda and |
| begins is in late 1880. It is a time when many | | | | tells of their successes, frustrations, and destinies. |
| Europeans came to America in looking for of | | | | My own Mother lost her mother to tuberculosis |
| economic opportunity. Mary Ann was sixteen | | | | within a year of her birth. As I read of Mary |
| years old when she arrived in New York harbor | | | | Ann's traumatic experience I was left with |
| with dreams of adventure and a new life. She left | | | | questions as to the impact this loss may have |
| her homeland of Germany to pursue a dream in | | | | had on my Mother's life. |
| America, the land of promise. Her dream soon | | | | The book is considered historical fiction but is so |
| became a nightmare. Mary Ann was hired as a | | | | believably written that you feel you are reading a |
| nanny by a young widowed domineering minister. | | | | fast moving adventure biography. The short |
| She later met and married Elbert Thomas. They | | | | chapters added to the sense of adventure and |
| were married when Mary Ann turned eighteen. | | | | made the story line move quickly. |
| Over the next ten years she gave birth to six | | | | Cora Seamans is an excellent communicator with |
| daughters. | | | | a creative imagination and passion that carries the |
| Elbert became ill with tuberculosis and soon was | | | | reader through a non stop story of conflict, heart |
| unable to work to provide for his family. | | | | ache, resolution, and hope. Her writing is tight, her |
| Desperate, Mary Ann unwittingly accepted small | | | | characters range from empathetic to |
| loans from the county. Within hours after Elbert | | | | contemptible. All are believable. |
| succumbed to the disease the county trustee | | | | This is a remarkable fictional account, based on a |
| confiscated all their personal belongings. The four | | | | true story. It is poignant and haunting in appeal |
| oldest daughters were taken into custody and | | | | and will linger in the mind of the reader long after |
| were put on an orphan train to be "sold" for | | | | the final page of the last chapter is closed. |