ditor Sandy Asher brings 21 writers together to share their stories and poems about growing up. In my story, “Where the Lilacs Grow,” Lorena Wildman and her family are forced to move from their family farm when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers builds Stockton Dam in southern Missouri during the 1960s. Lorena must find her way in a new home and a new town.
On Her Way is a Junior Library Guild Selection.
“Reading On Her Way is like going to a sleepover party and staying up all
night with a great group of new friends.
” — BookPage
or years, I was haunted by one particular Sunday afternoon in the late
1960s, a day when I visited a friend’s farm in Missouri that would soon be
flooded by Stockton Lake, which was being created by the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers. My friend’s family had moved their farmhouse to a sliver of land
that the lake wouldn't flood. The house felt out of place in its new
location, lonely and unsheltered. Then my friend and I walked up to the
foundation where her house had once been, and two huge lilac bushes stood
out front. How green and tall they were, how lovely. And yet, they’d never
bloom again. By the following spring, they’d be underwater. My friend
started to cry — and so did I.
“Now fishermen, campers, and hikers flock to Stockton Lake. Most of them probably don’t know about the tremendous sacrifices families made so the government could build the dam that forms the lake. It’s largely a forgotten story. So I wanted to return to that day long ago and bring that time and place back to life — for myself, but mostly for all the people whose homes and even towns are now underwater.”
— from On Her Way
On Her Way:
Stories and Poems About Growing up Girl,
Dutton Children’s Books
(Hardcover), 2004
This house inspired my story, “Where the Lilacs Grow.”
In the 1960s, the owners moved the house from its original location to save it from being flooded by Stockton Lake.