Loretta Willems

Child Bride Loretta Willems

Agnes Young was fourteen in 1936 when she married twenty-one year old Jacob Willems and joined him on his vagabond life, traveling California's country roads, sleeping in tents and cabins, picking up work wherever they could find it-harvesting grapes, peaches and apricots in spring and summer, pruning grapevines and fruit trees in winter--ready to pick up and move on whenever work dried up or her husband got an itch to try someplace new. Two years later she gave birth to her first child--a daughter she named Loretta, the author of this book. Agnes was only sixteen when she became a mother; yet she managed to create a stable home for her family, a home that felt secure and safe. Child Bride begins with Agnes and Jacob's romance and scandalous marriage, and then turns to the author's early memories of her parents and growing up in World War II California. Richly illustrated with wonderful old photos, this book explores a mother-daughter relationship during the years when a mother's quiet voice gently shapes the daughter's perception of the world. Loretta Willems, Ph. D. Religion/Theology & the Arts, is the author of The Gift of Laughter: The Story of a California Mennonite Family, the story of her father's family and their Mennonite heritage. More information may be found on her website http: //lorettawillems.com, which includes old photos used in the books.