Sing Them Home by Stephanie Kallos

Set in the fictional town of Emlyn Springs, a Welsh Town in Southeastern Nebraska. We explore the life of the Jones family. Much of the story is told in the voice of Hope Jones as she meets and falls in love with Llewelyn Jones and after going with him to attend a relative's funeral falls in love with Emlyn Springs his hometown. The couple marry in the early 1960's and settle down in Emlyn Springs. It is a town that honors all their Welsh traditions and has many traditions such as singing for funerals and the Little Miss Emlyn Springs competition in which the winner wins a carved chair. Llwellyn becomes the town Doctor and Hope a stay at home mom, who suffers several miscarriages before giving birth to 3 children. We also discover that she suffers from MS which her husband keeps from her until she becomes pregnant with their 3rd child. While Hope loves Emlyn Springs for it's rich history and tradition she is also stifled of her independence and has trouble making friends. She develops a friendship with her husband's nurse, Alvina "Viney" Closs , a widowed at a very young age many years ago.

Much of the story swings between Hope's diary of her marriage and current day. We see how the 3 children are affected by the death of their mother in the 1978 tornado, especially since her body was never found. Current day brings the Jones children together for their father's funeral after he's killed by a lightning strike. Larken, the oldest, is an overweight professor at University of Nebraska and is beset by fear of flying; son Gaelan, is a television weatherman and focused more on weight lifting than developing relationships and has too many women in his life; while the youngest, Bonnie, who stays in Emlyn Springs working odd jobs - she is almost like the Pied Piper as the children of Emlyn Springs follow her everywhere. Bonnie is also known as "Flying Girl" she survives the tornado that kills her mother - discovered in a tree still atop her bicycle. We learn more about Viney - nurse and eventual lover to Llewelyn. While they were together for over 25 years Viney discovers that she doesn't know Lleweyn at all. Together they have lived in her house under a strict exercise and vegan lifestyle. When she goes to clear out his house (the family house) it is full of junk food, alcohol and meat! This complicated relationship is slowly unveiled through flashbacks and Hope's diary entries.

This is a very complicated story and at times found myself wanting to tell the adult children to snap out of it. All 3 are stuck in some way, Larken with her compulsion to eat, Gaelan with only sleeping around without ever developing a relationship and Bonnie is stuck on nostalgia as she canvas's the town looking for things to collect that might connect her with their mother. None are challenging themselves and just do what needs to be done to get by.

I have been finding the descriptions of small town life fascinating as all 3 have to come to terms with loss and find their place in the world. Since I grew up in Omaha, NE I was intrigued to see how the author wrote about this region. There are two tornado sequences and are portrayed more romantically than what really happens but made for a good story. I had to suspend some sense of disbelief during these sequences.