Whistling Up the Southwind

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"I really enjoyed the well-developed characters in Whistling Up the Southwind who spoke to me about the things that were going on in their lives and how it influenced them. The plot seemed so real-life that I felt like the author was telling me her life history. I enjoyed the unusualness of travel in a motorhome-I have never experienced that and found it captivating! I would rank this book up there with others that have had a life-long impact on me."

-June Sadowsky, Geriatric DDS, Avid Reader

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Women who whistled were feared by sailors, as whistling was thought to bring storms across the seas. Anna Marie Golding, widowed for three years, whistled as a child but was stopped because her mother warned her that girls who whistle "come to a bad end."

Now retired as a Special Education Teacher Assistant, and tired of grieving for her beloved late husband Ted, Anna Marie spontaneously buys a 1998 1/2 Southwind Motorhome to move into the next stage of her life.

Despite her family's deep concern for her large purchase and her safety traveling alone, Anna Marie leaves on her own for a many-month journey across the United States in her RV. She brings her pug, Little Bear, and adopts Maya, a Maine Coon Cat at her first campsite. Then Christa joins them-a runaway pregnant teenager left stranded by James, her missionary leader and rapist. Finally, Granny Rose, an elderly woman with dementia, stows uninvited aboard The Southwind.

The three women represent the three stages of women's lives, based on ancient traditions reflecting the moon cycles. The pets become close companions, supporting each woman throughout the journey. Whistling up the Southwind begins seven years after this journey of a lifetime when Anna Marie receives a phone call reporting the death of Granny Rose, with a request for Anna Marie to take on a bank-held security box.