Cora Lee: A Short Story — Louella Nelson

In this gripping tale of survival in backwoods Depression-era Virginia, a homeless mother awakes after days of fever to find a tall stranger sharpening his knife by her campfire. Her husband, expected to return from looking for work, is a week late. In her struggle to reunite her family, a desperate Cora Lee protects herself with a mantle of bitterness and hate; but her child's propensity for hope, the kindness of strangers, and her own capacity for love challenge Cora Lee to embrace the blessings as well as the tragic ironies of her life.