Her childhood was idyllic: fishing by moonlight, dressing her cats in doll clothes, stealing apples from the orchards planted on the Western frontier. Slim, lively Jessie Lee dreamed a little girl's dreams in an exquisitely remembered world of one-room schoolhouses, snowy Christmases, and a family that survived scarlet fever and floods with the power of love.

But for Jessie Lee, as for the nation, World War I put an end to those years of innocence. She lost her beloved fiance and mother in one year. She eventually married a man she didn't love and bore him eight children. Then, as her husband sank deeper and deeper into alcoholism, she carried the brunt of raising them on her own - selling products door-to-door with her youngest children by her side, and fighting debt and dishonor with hard work and the loving help of family and friends.

As time went on, and Jessie Lee broke with convention to find a job and get a divorce, she also found it in her heart to forgive the husband who had disappointed her, take responsibility for her own mistakes, and pass the insights of a long lifetime down to her children and grandchildren.

Her message is inspiring: that life is about meeting our challenges...and that extraordinary courage can be found inside ordinary lives, wisdom resides behind every elderly face, and everyday heroes and heroines stand beside us within our own American families.