Outskirts Press, INC.

Praise for Yearning!

"Sally Cisney Mann tells a powerful, moving, and unforgettable story of tragedy and hope, loss and love, suffering and triumph. Hers is a life shaped by sweeping events - economic and social dislocation from the Great Depression, World War II, and the war in Southeast Asia. All students of war and the family should read this work, as well as those interested in the social history of women in America and in how we construct our individual identities when the world seems unwilling to cooperate. Her truly remarkable account, at once personal and universal, details her quest for stability - and for family. Readers will shed tears at all she endured, and they'll truly be 'in her corner' as she struggles to prevail over heartache."
Donald J. Mrozek
Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Department of History, Kansas State University
Author of Air Power and the Ground War in Vietnam

On February 18, 1969, the official navy blue car stopped outside my home. Whit and Nick, my three- and-four-year-old sons, were playing at a neighbor's house on our cul-de-sac. I was in the kitchen heating Beanie Weenies and cutting up fruit for the boys' dinner. From the kitchen window, I saw the car pull up to our front curb and stop, but it never crossed my mind that the dreaded scene was about to unfold. When I opened the door, the somber faces on the two men who stood there triggered a momentary paralysis. I recognized one officer as a base chaplain. I didn't know the other one. I saw their lips moving, but heard no sound.