“I was born and raised in Harleysville and I guess I want to die in Harleysville.”

At the core of Soundwaves Between Us is the link to land and family. This book emerged from telephone conversations between a grandmother and granddaughter and speaks to the experience of women who were born as the shadow of the Great Depression and World War II was fading.

In the book, Nancy Mininger reflects on her life as her world handled several cultural swings: Cold War America, Mennonite leaders questioning which parts of their identity they should maintain and which to shed, and the suburbanization of Montgomery County, PA.

Young Nancy raises steers, goes to school and splashes in creeks before balancing her families differing values toward learning vs working. As she grows she meets a carpenter boy, serves in I-W and reflects on raising children in an era with much less safety protocols than today. Adult Nancy learns how to use computers, organizes Christmas donations and enjoys hosting the children and grandchildren every Thursday for supper.

The Nancy at the conclusion has loved much and lost much over her life, has lived through many cultural changes and yet feels very content with how everything turned out.

In Soundwaves Between Us she recollects and reflects on a lifetime of thoughts to her granddaughter during the height of the COVID-19 epidemic. Her story is a portrait of a woman's life which follows the paths that many others may find familiar, as well as the offshoots she took along the way.