The Hurricane Sisters: A Novel
Page 29
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Dear Friends,
While doing research for The Hurricane Sisters I came across the startling facts about South Carolina’s high ranking in cases of domestic homicide in the United States. I began to dig and ask questions only to discover that the problem is dramatically worse than I ever would have imagined. The statistics at the national level are even more staggering.
In the United States every year, an estimated 1,300,000 women are victims of physical assault. The crimes are usually committed by an intimate partner. The 1,300,000 are only the cases that are reported. One point three million. Many, many more women remain silent because of denial or fear. And ultimately, an estimated 1,800 women in America die each year as a result of domestic violence.
On September 12, 2012, on just that one day, across the country over ten thousand cries for help from victims were unmet because of limited resources and funding.
I didn’t know any of this before I started writing this book. I mention it here because I want to start a conversation with you and for you to have conversations with each other. What can we do? Battered women’s shelters all over the country are in constant need of support—goods, services, and, of course, money. If you live in South Carolina, please consider a donation of any kind to support My Sister’s House. If you don’t, please support the battered women’s shelters near you. They save women and children, help to make them whole again, and, most of all, give victims hope.
Many thanks.
Dear Readers,
For the third time in a decade, South Carolina ranks FIRST in the nation for the number of women murdered by men, per annum.
Although this novel is a work of fiction, the statistics are a hard fact. My Sister’s House, Inc. is a real nonprofit organization, located in Charleston, SC, and was founded in 1980. Women and children in immediate danger from verbal, emotional, physical, or sexual abuse are eligible for services at no charge. The organization provides 24-hour temporary emergency shelter and a crisis line to victims of domestic violence in addition to group and individual counseling, children’s programs, outreach programs, and a host of other services. My Sister’s House, Inc. strives to improve community awareness of and an appropriate response to the devastating effects of domestic violence.
In 2013, My Sister’s House touched the lives of 4,286 clients, answered 2,043 crisis calls, supported 462 advocacy cases, hosted 1,584 participants in our outreach programs, made 2,526 referrals, sheltered 197 women and children, and spent 84 cents of every dollar raised on programs and services for our clients. In order to provide a safe, more spacious environment where victims can not only make decisions but also take action to make those decisions a reality, a new facility is the next large endeavor. At 9,500 square feet, the current shelter accommodates up to 36 residents and the new facility would accommodate 46. No waiting lists! It is clear that a new facility is not just a “want” but rather a “necessity” in our continued efforts to help victims, to educate the public, and to eradicate abuse. Currently, we are in the process of launching a 3.5 million dollar capital campaign to raise funds for the project.
We invite you to visit our website at www.mysistershouse.org and to learn more about our organization’s mission, programs, and services. Then please consider making a donation to our capital campaign at www.mysistershouse.org/donate. Your contribution will make a significant difference in the lives of so many women and children who have chosen to flee an abusive, potentially life-threatening situation. Please help us in our mission to provide a “home away from home” for victims who long to feel safe and secure.
Thank you in advance for your generosity!
Warmest regards,
Mackie Moore
Director of Development
My Sister’s House
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Using a real person’s name for a character in a book has been a great way to raise money for worthy causes. And in The Hurricane Sisters four generous souls come to life in these pages as my characters. I have never met two of these folks so I can assure you that the behavior, language, and personalities of the characters bear no resemblance to the actual people. My thanks go to Cindy Lue Elder for her generous support of the Lamb Institute, and to Porter (and Lorraine) Galloway for their support of the auction my dear friend Catherine Hay organized for the Regional Medical Center of Orangeburg, South Carolina.
However, I do know Bill and Judy Turner well, as they are my neighbors and friends in Montclair and strong supporters of the Van Vleck Gardens Gala. Thank you for letting me rewrite your lives and I hope y’all get a kick out of this.
Now, truth—Joyce Cerato does not operate a llama farm. We’ve been great friends for an obscene amount of years and if she starts talking, so will I! Love ya, girl! If you need an interior designer, she’s your girl.
More truth—Annie and David Malcolm live in San Diego, California. And Michelle and Steve Karol? They live in Boston and I’m always trying to lure all of them to Charleston so we can see each other more often! I hope y’all will be pleasantly surprised to find yourselves in this drama. It was fun being reminded of you each time I wrote your names!
And make sure you do stop in for dinner at SALT at Station 22 on Sullivans Island. Say hello to the owners, my old friend Marshall Stith and my new friend Richard Stoney. Tell Marshall to buy you a beer and to give the bill to Richard! Love y’all! And to the iconic Magwoods—thanks for the wonderful memories!
Thanks to Art Seiber of Seattle for the restaurant tip on Pam’s Kitchen. And heartfelt thanks to Colleen Bozard and Rebecca Williams-Agee of the South Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault for their helpful information. But the biggest thanks of all go to Mackie Moore of My Sister’s House in Charleston, South Carolina, for her endless patience and knowledge.
Special thanks to Mikie Hayes of the Medical University in Charleston for helping me visualize the hospital and to George Zur, who is not a politico in real life but a computer webmaster, for keeping the website alive. If you are ever in Charleston and need a lift, call Walter Whaley at Chauffeurs Unlimited. He’s a living doll and we love him! (I suspect his wife, Joyce, is a saint!) And JoAnna Marie Tedesco for cluing me in on the real meaning of YOLO! Lastly, Maisie Pringle’s deceased husband, Neal, is alive and well and living in Atlanta. I suspect he has never owned a llama.
I’d like to thank my wonderful editor at William Morrow, Carrie Feron, for her marvelous friendship, her endless wisdom, and her fabulous sense of humor. Your ideas and excellent editorial input always make my work better. I couldn’t do this without you. I am blowing you bazillions of smooches from my office window in Montclair. And to Suzanne Gluck, Alicia Gordon, Eve Attermann, Samantha Frank, Claudia Webb, Cathryn Summerhayes, Tracy Fisher, and the whole amazing team of Jedis at WME, I am loving y’all to pieces and looking forward to a brilliant future together!
To the entire William Morrow and Avon team: Brian Murray, Michael Morrison, Liate Stehlik, Nicole Fischer, Lynn Grady, Tavia Kowalchuk, Ben Bruton, Kathy Gordon, Frank Albanese, Virginia Stanley, Rachael Brenner Levenberg, Andrea Rosen, Caitlin McCaskey, Josh Marwell, Doug Jones, Carla Parker, Donna Waikus, Rhonda Rose, Michael Morris, Gabe Barillas, Deb Murphy, Mumtaz Mustafa, and last but most certainly not ever least, Brian Grogan: thank you one and all for the miracles you perform and for your amazing, generous support. You still make me want to dance.
To Buzzy Porter, huge thanks for getting me so organized and for your loyal friendship of many years. Don’t know what I’d do without you!
To Debbie Zammit, it seems incredible but here we are again! Another year! Another miracle! Another year of keeping me on track, catching my goobers, and making me look reasonably intelligent by giving me tons of excellent ideas about everything. I know, I owe you so big-time it’s ridiculous but isn’t this publishing business better than Seventh Avenue? Love ya, girl!
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br /> To Ann Del Mastro and my cousin, Charles Comar Blanchard, all the Franks love you for too many reasons to enumerate!
To booksellers across the land, and I mean every single one of you, I thank you from the bottom of my heart, especially Patty Morrison of Barnes and Noble, Tom Warner and Vicky Crafton of Litchfield Books (not of My Sister’s House), Sally Brewster of Park Road Books, and once again, can we just hold the phone for Jacquie Lee of Books a Million? Jacquie, Jacquie! You are too much, hon! Love ya and love y’all!
To my family, Peter, William, and Victoria, I love y’all with all I’ve got. Victoria, you are the most beautiful, wonderful daughter and I am so proud of you. You and William are so smart and so funny, but then a good sense of humor might have been essential to your survival in this house. And you both give me great advice, a quality that makes me particularly proud. And William, my sweet William, my heart swells with gratitude and pride when I think of you and you are never far away from the forefront of my mind. Every woman should have my good fortune with their children. You fill my life with joy. Well, usually. Just kidding. Peter Frank? You are still the man of my dreams, honey. Thirty-one years and they never had a fight. It’s a little incredible to realize it’s only thirty-one years, especially when it feels like I’ve been loving you forever.
Finally, to my readers, to whom I owe the greatest debt of all, I am sending you the most sincere and profound thanks for reading my stories, for sending along so many nice e-mails, for yakking it up with me on Facebook, and for coming out to book signings. You are why I try to write a book each year. I hope The Hurricane Sisters will entertain you and give you something new to think about. There’s a lot of magic down here in the Lowcountry. Please, come see us and get some for yourself!
I love you all and thank you once again.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
New York Times bestselling author DOROTHEA BENTON FRANK was born and raised on Sullivans Island, South Carolina. She divides her time between the New York area and the Lowcountry.
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ALSO BY DOROTHEA BENTON FRANK
The Last Original Wife
Porch Lights
Folly Beach
Lowcountry Summer
Return to Sullivans Island
Bulls Island
The Christmas Pearl
The Land of Mango Sunsets
Full of Grace
Pawleys Island
Shem Creek
Isle of Palms
Plantation
Sullivans Island
COPYRIGHT
This book is a work of fiction. References to real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locales are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity and are used fictitiously. All other characters, and all incidents and dialogue, are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real.
THE HURRICANE SISTERS. Copyright © 2014 by Dorothea Benton Frank. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Print Edition ISBN: 9780062132529
EPub Edition PUB JUNE 2014 ISBN: 9780062132536
FIRST EDITION
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