A Summer Harvest

When does a man stop loving a woman? When she dies, does his feelings die with her? If he still loves her years after she's gone, when is it all right to love someone new? Frank Watson was a farmer who lived in a small town nestled in the cornfields of rural America. He spent his life farming the land that had been in the family for well over a hundred years. He reared two children with Ida, his wife, and never had any regrets. Then, suddenly, she was gone. The woman with whom he had shared his bed for over forty-two years was suddenly absent from his life. Everyone in town jealously admired their special relationship. While they were married, there wasn’t a year that passed that Frank didn’t prepare a homemade cake for Ida’s birthday. They still held hands everywhere they went even after all those years. She was gone now, and Frank was all alone. Then Pepper Ledley came into Frank’s life. She was a young woman nearly half his age and offered him something he had never before considered, a new beginning. However, it somehow didn’t seem right to Frank. How could he have these feelings when he still loved Ida? As he struggles with his new feelings and the memory of his beloved wife, Frank faces the biggest crisis of his life. A large foreign corporation wants to build and operate a five hundred-acre egg factory. Frank alienates himself from the rest of the town when he, steadfastly, refuses to sell his land. Unlike the other members of the community, Frank is certain there will be problems if they are allowed to build.