Mountain Nurse — Peggy Gaddis

Nurse Julie's job was her whole life. Could she risk losing it…to find herself as a woman?

“I'm not going to ask you to marry me,” Ken said -- and Julie felt the words like a blow. For one awful moment she was speechless. Then her angry, hurting words rushed out. “I don't want you to ask me to marry you! I wouldn't even if you did!”

After all, why should she? Her fabulous job -- the job that meant so much to her -- was waiting. Who needed Ken?

But her heart lurched, for not until this moment had she admitted even to herself that she was in love with him.


Julie Winston was a recently graduated R.N., who loved her profession but was interested in working with a fine pediatrician in a luxury office where she would be well paid and have regular hours. She considered that her widowed sister Linda was sacrificing herself needlessly by serving as a county nurse in a remote mountain area, and hoped during her visit to the Blue Ridge to persuade Linda to return to the city with her.

The visit was prolonged by an unexpected difficult patient whom Julie was called upon to nurse in an emergency; and by the sudden arrival in a snowstorm of a young man known as the “Wayfaring Stranger.”

And by the time she was ready to go back to Atlanta, Julie had learned to understand the mountain people, to appreciate the satisfaction to be gained from unselfish dedication, and even to read her own heart.