What Might Have Been is the story of three generations of a family in a rural town of Upstate South Carolina beginning in 1910 and concluding in the late 1950s as the United States and the world were changing dramatically. Each generation faces tragedies, trials, world events, emotions, joy, love, and all the other issues of everyday living that people face in living out their lives. Humor plays an important part even in the midst of events that shape and mold the characters throughout their lives. As the story opens, we are introduced to two young teenagers, Carrie and Ben, who meet, have a brief courtship, and marry impulsively. Typical of the time and location, they are poor and without resources to improve their lifestyle. Working as a tenant farmer, Ben is able to provide a simple living for the quickly growing family while Carrie works equally hard in their small, frame tenant house, cooking, canning, helping in the garden which provides their food, and all the other household chores of the era. Their love grows even as they face the tragedies of children who died much too young. Their life also is composed of happy times and family fun, times such as a family quilting bee, making sorghum molasses, a simple Christmas, and school events. Ben is hard-working but he has a sense of humor that sees him through the rough patches and enriches the lives of himself and Carrie. Carrie dreams of bright futures for her children and gives each a distinctive name. The tragedies of the early deaths of three of their daughters affect Carrie more than Ben, and she suffers from periodic depression throughout her life. The depression is not severe enough to cripple her life, but it does have its impact with a lifetime of "sick headaches". The world around them begins changing in the early 1930s as their children are growing up, and they have more choices in occupations and town versus country living.
About the Author: A retired elementary school teacher, the author was a stay-at-home mom until starting college at the age of 30. Her interest in writing began in college and in the classroom encouraging her students to express themselves. It was only after retirement that she found the time to write this book, a book that seemed to write itself out of her emotional needs.