Jeanne McNulty

It was a "fur piece" down into Colt Run Holler (Valley) where the author finally found the place she would call "home" on earth.

Born in 1941 on a farm outside the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania she took a long circuitous route into a convent, a monastery and onto the inner-city streets of Pittsburgh and Chicago before finding her niche in the west,central mountains of West Virginia.

In search of silence, solitude and solidarity among the Appalachin mountain folk she left the streets and the little intentional community in Chicago. Arriving almost penniless in an ole' blue Chevy Vega she eventually wound up at a dilapidated cabin in the woods about three miles from the town of Spencer in Roane County.

Since 1976 the author has spent many days and hours in solitude and contemplative prayer and traveled thousands of miles over the mountains into the homes of the native appalachian people caring for them as a home-health nurse. From these vantage points she shares her experience of solitude and the true, delightful, wise and sometimes very humorous stories of the folks she has cared for.

Now most of her time is spent in solitude, writing, weaving on a floor loom and gardening. On the property there is chapel(straw bale construction), a main house and four little cabins scattered in the hills where others come away from their frenetic lives to experience a time of peace in closeness to the Creator and His creation.