Hennepin County Libary hardcover 311 pages
genre: biographical
Amazing! I read a review of this book somewhere and put it on my library requests list. By the time I got it, I had mostly forgotten about it. I had tears streaming down my face for the last hundred pages . . .
Minka was a shy sixteen-year-old when she got to go on a sewing class picnic in August 1928. Used to the hard work on her stepfather's dairy farm, the picnic was a huge treat. She had even sewn a new dress to wear! Toward the end of the picnic, Minka and another quiet girl, Clara, went for a walk around the lake. The girls were accosted and raped by some older men. Neither girl told a soul . . . but Minka's mother guessed when the teenager didn't have any rags in the laundry that fall.
The story of her pregnancy, giving up her daughter for adoption, and her life until she saw her again at age 94 is stunning and worthwhile reading. I would recommend this to anyone! I would even consider buying a copy to own and re-reading it. What an amazing woman.
I love, love, love the cover pic (of Minka's actual hands holding the only photo of her with her baby Betty Jane):
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