Wednesday's Children: The Memoirs of a Nurse-Turned-Social-Worker in Rural Appalachia

by Kathryn Anne Michaels

Delivering welfare babies, warding off voodoo spells, and living in a town that still seems to be fighting the Civil War—small wonder young RN Kate Jacobs quickly grows disenchanted with nursing in the Lowcountry of coastal South Carolina. When a friend urges her to switch from nursing to paramedic medicine and child protection social work, Kate accepts the challenge and finds herself in an isolated rural area of the Appalachian Mountains.Here a new set of challenges await: technical cliff rescues and hikes into remote back-country “hollers” to remove child victims of sexual assault from their homes only to have an indifferent judge order them back the next day, and dealing with some of America’s poorest and most distrustful citizens.And from all appearances, and even though she’s white, former members of the Ku Klux Klan have just set her house on fire…Based on the memoirs of a registered nurse-turned-social worker, this is a tale of heartbreak and laughter, courage and cowardice seasoned with a candid look at the early days of social work and emergency rescue medicine that will both challenge and renew your faith in humanity.Warning: Some graphic content

Genres: History, Nonfiction

225 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 10, 2018

About the author

Kathryn Anne Michaels spent her working life where few novelists have: as a registered nurse and MSW social worker, an EMT, a ski patroller, and a whitewater river guide. She has splinted fractures on cliff faces, run rivers, patrolled ski slopes, and carried children out of harm's way — and that firsthand experience gives her writing its unmistakable authenticity. The gear is right, the medicine is right, and the courage is real.

She is the author of the best-selling memoir Wednesday's Children (an American Book Fest Finalist) and the novel My Name is Tod. Her new wilderness romance-thriller, Heron Mountain, is forthcoming from Palmetto Publishing.

Reviews

[Bafstl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting but terrible ending

Her story and the history and pain behind it were worth.reading about but the book literally just ended. Felt like she had a set length required and cut it off when she got there. A shame since since you really cared about her and her friends, colleagues and clients.

[Elisabeth Brookshire · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't think I'd want her to be my RN or MSW

This book is about a woman who is a nurse, social worker, and rescue EMT in the Appalachian mountains. She tells stories about her clients in brief detail but rather than coming across as caring or long suffering, she kind of comes of as mean spirited (I'll write that instead of what I actually said aloud while reading this). She has little patience for anyone other than herself or her friends and family. And of course all her male EMT trainees were in love with her and why wouldn't they be? When I roll my eyes while reading I know I'm annoyed. You could probably go ahead and skip this one. I was disappointed.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great bunch of stories--some hilarious, some terrifying, some unbelievable. A professor I once had told us the story of the backwoodsman from S. Carolina who had been in the photocopy room. He saw black smoke coming out of the machine and ran into the hallway, yelling, "Hep! Hep! The Xeroxt is afire!" Similar, and even odder, actual people commit even more ridiculous/atrocious/felonious deeds in this book. One furious child-protection-agency kid burns the house of the author down to ashes and half a chimney. It turns out that several people on the EMT rescue team are Klan members. Some of them live in little shacks in the mountains made of straw or twigs--the building materials of the lesser pigs in the Three Little Pigs fable. I was in Charleston once, and I ordered a "daht Coke and some frahs," and got the order immediately and correctly filled. To think that there are small pockets of America where this is standard speech and where people still live in the conditions depicted in James Agee's and Walker Evans' famous book "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men," about families living in the Dust Bowl during the Depression, boggles the 21st century mind.

This book is valuable as an ethnography as well as a slug of great, true but unbelievable, stories. It's Deliverance all over again without the banjos. How this author managed to survive really primitive conditions as an EMT worker and child-protection official in a tiny mountain town near Charleston, while her husband was strutting around town with his girlfriend and former clients were committing major arson, is amazing. Each story is more bizarre than the last. The book gives you a slice of life that you can hardly imagine.

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants four hours or so of fascinating immersion into a culture most of us didn't know still existed. This book is so absorbing that it would be great to read if you were in prison waiting to be executed--or anywhere else.

[Margaret Joyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

This 1st person account of the writer's 10 years as Child Protective Services social worker in Appalachia n the '70's, is heavy with the agony of child abuse and the physical , mental, emotional and spiritual labour of the writer. The book is structured into one story per chapter, the whole giving a rounded out picture of the immensity of the service the writer gave to her North Carolina, Appalachian community. A brave and important account of the field of child and youth protection. Brava, Kathryn Anne Michaels.

[Heather Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just wow

As a mental health professional I am so grateful this book was written. Not only is it informative on issues that plague our communities but it feels so real to the full experience of being a social worker. We often love, laugh, anger, and mourn with our clients. We learn deep lessons about ourselves.

These stories honor all involved with a raw honesty, heartbreak, joy, and laughter that is so intrinsically human.

I read this book in less than a day because I couldn’t put it down. Definitely a must read.

[Lynda B Buermann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous book!!!

This book gives a view into the lives of vulnerable people. Uneducated, poverty stricken, and with little hope of changing their lives for the better. We often judge these victims and blame them for their circumstances but this author does an amazing job of showing how we all can make things better if we choose to try. In society, if we aren't part of the solution then we are part of the problem.

[Jennifer Foust · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book gives new perspectives

I happened to read this after experiencing a family living in a situation much like many described in this book. My choice to reach out to local services to help them was validated after reading this. CPS and similar services really exist to help and I hope this book helps more people either realize that or get the courage to seek out ways they can also help their local communities.

[Ellen Marsh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This series of "stories" told in individual chapters detail the cases the author took on as a social worker fresh out of grad school in the 1970s. Some are sad, some are uplifting, some are shocking depending on if child abuse was involved or not. The author's own journey from RN to social worker to young bride whose marriage crumbles in part due to her caseload weaves throughout the tales. There's a little bit of everything in this spiritual and ultimately uplifting book.

[Linda Liddic · Rating 1 out of 5]

Misleading

I pushed buy by mistake. This book is a lot of horn blowing. 10 years in the poorest field .this author did nothing but build herself
up in what countless of people have done for years. The person I admired in this entire story was Sarah who probably didn't make enough to live on. This book is very misleading and certainty not about mountian poverty unless you want to know about her credentials and her Mother Thersa complex.

[sequoia spirit · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
The author tells many stories about her years of being a social worker, EMT, and a wife and friend. She lives in South Carolina in the Appalachians and the ignorance and poverty she encounters is severe. The details sound exaggerated but anyone who's ever lived in poverty up in the holler knows everything she says is sadly true.
the book is well written and kept my interest through out.. i read it in a day..

[Russell G Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Connecticut Yankee Registered Nurse in South Carolina.

Becomes in turn an RN, an emergency technician, a social worker, a valued friend, amid a whirl of of problems, local prejudice, and malaise.

[Deborah]

Good book but not enough detail

Good points but the author could have made the book more interesting by giving more detail of the living conditions and backgrounds of the families encountered. The book felt slightly rushed.

[Lynndolyn T Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was excellent. It was a real page turner. I liked the sequence of events and realistic. I have worked in the Child In Need if Assistance system for many years and this book was true to form. Kathryn Ann Michaels is an excellent and very talented writer.

[Penny Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thought provoking

So sad that anyone could or would want to abuse another human being,no less a child. God bless the people who are trying their best with so little resources and for very little pay, to help those who are holding on, second by second.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good

Really liked the book and the author. On one hand wish for a more detailed memoir but on the other think it would be to emotionally heavy. Offered great insight and wisdom into abuse, poverty, social work, etc.

[Irene Doherty · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the book because it provided a glimpse into rural poverty in the South while mostly giving dignity to the people living there with problems. The other reason I gave it this high rating is that she wrote some guidance about how to recognize child sexual abuse at the end of the book. That said, I agree with another reviewer that it ended abruptly.

[Christine Cazeneuve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honest

Powerful, emotional, sad, frustrating and inspirational. What an amazing woman she is. She has had some of the toughest career choices and gave them her all. Wish the book was a bit longer.

[kathy hughes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sad,yet uplifting.

The true stories here are heartbreaking, but as true author says, you celebrate the victories. It takes a special person to look into the darkest parts of a human's soul & still continue to believe that good can come out of such tragedy: a Phoenix.

[wendi c duncan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wednesdays Children

The memoirs of a nurse turned social worker this is a good book and can you believe all the difference this lady made to so many ppl in need

[Robi A · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty good book

This story was easy to read. It wasn't deep or scholarly but it's emotional and shares the author's life story being a social worker in North Carolina.

[denise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written

Very nicely written. I enjoyed the pace and felt the emotional roller coaster of her life. Enjoyed reading this book .

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brings to light a heart breaking problem

A book about child abuse is difficult to read, but Michaels balances it with hope. We all need to be more aware of child abuse.

[Kathleen Galiger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somewhat interesting book. I did not speed thru it... But I did finish it. The topic of this book was what got my attention. But the writing was just blah.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good book. Incredibly sad, yet also uplifting.

[Casey Novak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unimaginable stories.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review

It was interesting to see the social workers life in their own words. The book was good if doing research

[Katie Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am an RN case manager so this book really spoke to me.

[Xenia · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful diary about the abominable things humans do to one another. This woman went thru hell and back and was still able to see the good in her work and in people.

[Vickiewestmoreland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent read this captures your attention from the start.

[Alane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly moving

I couldn't put it down. Sad, troubling stories, but you also get to see the difference she makes in many lives. What a resilient woman.