My Aunt Helen

Along a busy downtown street in the small city of Natchez, Mississippi, is a place where magic happens. The place is the Natchez Children's Home, where, for more than a century, hundreds of children in need of a safe haven and a "family" have been taken in. I wrote this book not only as a tribute to the Children's Home and its dedicated staff but to tell the story of the children through the eyes of a child, one who actually could have been one of those in need. Remarkably, the Children's Home has survived - sometimes not so easily - on private contributions and fund-raisers. In this book, Laura Lee Walker is brought to the Children's Home by her ailing grandmother. There, Laura Lee finds love and friendship, all the while longing for a family of her own. She creates a fictitious aunt - Aunt Helen - to whom she writes letters that go unanswered until one day when a young reporter, Tracy Hawkins, comes into Laura Lee's life. Just when everything seems to be going right in her life, Laura Lee meets up with her father, Cass Walker, who has vowed to kill her. The story is suspenseful, inspirational and heartwarming.