Windborne

Kansas’ tallgrass prairie provides a vivid setting for Windborne, a new novel by Wanda DeHaven Pyle. The author draws heavily on her childhood experiences growing up in the Flint Hills to chronicle a story of three generations of women who triumph over heartache, poverty, and abuse to pursue the dream of a better life. Skillfully creating compassionate characters with a range of emotions, Windborne is a novel unique in style and scope. Set against a historical backdrop of major economic and cultural changes of the past century, it is an elegantly timeless tale about the nature of love, loss and awakening. Pioneer women followed their men into the rolling Flint Hills of Kansas in search of the dream, but when Virginia Findlay gives up her career as a one-room school teacher in rural Kansas to marry her sweetheart, she is unaware of the chain of events she sets in motion for the three generations of women who follow. The Flint Hills promised bountiful wildlife and fertile valleys, but for Virginia, Helen and Leah it was an empty promise. Bowing to the culture of the times, Virginia gives up her teaching career to marry Will Caulder, a young cowboy who has big dreams of owning his own ranch and making a name for himself among the large cattle ranchers of the day. However, the death of their first child followed by the devastating effects of the Great Depression changes everything. Will and Virginia’s family comes of age with the onset of World War II. Their oldest son is drafted into the Army and their two older daughters marry servicemen, leaving only Helen, their youngest, still in school. Once out from under the shadow of her older siblings and attending college on her own, Helen discovers her own identity and independence. She passes the war years in a whirlwind of activity with only a vague understanding of what the war is all about. When the war ends, returning servicemen are eager to marry and return to a life of normalcy and Helen is swept off her feet by Jack DeWitt, a young sailor who promises her the life she has always dreamed of. But like many returning veterans, he suffers from the stress and depression brought on by direct combat with the enemy. Jack’s dream is also to own a large cattle ranch in the Flint Hills, but having grown up in the city and suffered a childhood filled with emotional abuse from his alcoholic father, he is ill-prepared for what lies in store. He is unable to overcome the demons that still haunt him from the war and turns to alcohol for relief. He comes physically abusive to Helen and their daughters and one night in a drunken rage, he ends it all leaving Helen and her daughters to find the strength to survive on their own. When Will’s failing health leads to a fatal heart attack, Virginia is faced with her own unfulfilled hopes and dreams until an opportunity presents itself that brings her life full circle. In the twilight of her years she is finally able to recapture the passion and purpose she had felt all those years ago as the schoolmarm. During the difficult years before Jack’s death, Helen had relied on her older daughter, Leah, to feed her emotional needs and provide her with the strength to carry on. Now, Leah is set adrift in the culture of the 1960’s not knowing exactly what her role in life should be. She is torn between her need for the safety and security of a traditional relationship and her desire for an independent life and an exciting career. Her choice sends her careening down a path of emotional destruction until she is forced to stand on her own again and rediscover the essence of her own identity. Like the pioneer women who came before them, these are independent and courageous women who set aside their own dreams to nurture and support others. Eventually, each woman must recognize her hidden strength and power and find the courage to be true to herself.