Catch Me When I Fall

Welcome to Poplar Grove, a farming community of three generations of Dutch-Canadians. Life in the new world has not become less complicated as the decades have passed, and now, a set of dying customs is about to collide with the ways of a new generation. The balance is shifting between people comfortable holding hymnals and cleaning cows teats and those who are uneasy with traditional expectations. A young man questions the choices of his ancestors; a woman mourns the loss of her disabled son, but also wishes to end the ritual state of mourning; a girl cannot choose between her brother's new-age beliefs and her parents' old-world traditions. These people are bound by old-world expectations and the demands of an agricultural life. Author Patricia Westerhof examines a place where two opposing ideologies are mingling, neither better than the other, but where a shift in patterns will bring new perspectives.