Patterson Creek

As a young Philadelphian, Anne's wit and heart warmed others, while she quietly suffered alone inside. But as a Marylander, working at the Finan Center, she began thinking suffering was meant to be. Finan was a low-security hospital ordered to take violent patients from the worst asylum in Maryland. Over-crowding made Anne a canary in the coal mine when the Cumberland Times-News cried: Finan Patient Faces Murder Charge. Eventually, all units got max-security, with census caps. Anne only got surgery, nursing care, rehab, and seizures. This story took 25 years to write, and it returns Anne's voice and honors her mettle, faith and heart. Also, thanks to a supportive friend who became a ray of hope, and lost love in the beauty of western Maryland in the deceptively peaceful hollows around Fort Ashby and Patterson Creek, West Virigina.