The Barbara — Jane Ritzenthaler

Book Four, the final volume of the Hope Chest series, follows the lives of the McCurdy family in Prescott, Arizona from 1948 to 1972. The final chapter of the saga of the McCurdy family begins with Dorothy and Phil on their honeymoon in Trieste, Italy, searching for her childhood Jewish pen-pal. God continues to weave together the lives of the family using Amy's steamer trunk, answering prayers and heart-felt cries. Back in Prescott, Arizona, Robbie has retired, and his son David has taken over his small-town practice from the Victorian home on Pleasant Street. In New York, Abigail's daughter Cynthia runs for Congress on a platform of civil rights, which takes her to the March on Washington in 1963 to hear Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr's infamous speech. Barbara finds her great-grandmother's Brownie camera, which sets her on a path toward photo journalism. And Dorothy cries for her talented son, Chris, as he vanishes into the hippie culture of Woodstock. In this family saga, God demonstrates that He is outside of time, knowing the end from the beginning. Amy's Hope Chest continues to be the conduit for mysterious links to the past and the future in this series of time travel with a twist.