Waverly Hills Sanatorium
1910 - 1980
My second novel takes place in the wilds of Kentucky, at a former Tuberculosis Hospital known as Waverly Hills. In it, I take what became a national tragedy- the Tuberculosis Outbreak- and make it into one young girl's personal and tragic struggle to survive in a time when the closest thing to "a cure" was sitting in the sun and playing on the roof with other children.
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Patients reclining in the sun to build up their strength |
Interlocked with her story, is that of her older sister- a nurse at the Sanatorium who makes a drastic decision to prevent the spread of the disease. And interlocked with the young girl, is the main character, a high school boy who plays docent to tourists at the hospital. His chance encounter with the young patient will change the way he looks at the disease, and haunt him for the rest of his life, once he realizes her true motive. Because to so many of the patients at Waverly, he has the one thing they all desperately want, but can't have.
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| A frontal shot of Waverly Hills, showing all three floors |
I do something I've never considered doing- add vintage photographs to help tell the story of the girl and those like her. The majority of the photographs belong to my family, and I'm certain that a few of them more than likely died from Tuberculosis.
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| I use vintage photographs like this one to help tell the story |
The Sound of Sickness is very much a ghost story. It has elements of paranormal, in the form of the young girl, but it's also very much a tragedy. Hundreds upon hundreds died from Tuberculosis in the early days of the 20th century, yet very few know what it was like, especially for the children dieing from TB. I decided that this would not only be a story about disease, but also a story about the victims- the youngest, the forgotten.
