Kate Kasten

Better Days Kate Kasten

Helen and Cal Earlywine, in their early '70s, are the last of generations to work their rural Iowa farm. Their beloved son Tom was to have carried on the tradition, but, twenty-six years ago at age twenty, he met a sudden death. Now, when much more of life lies behind them than in front of them, Helen and Cal must face the reverberations of Tom's death and the somehow surprising, though always inevitable, sabotage of old age--Cal's deteriorating hip, Helen's sister's increasing dementia. Enter Nancy Bannister, relentless town booster and manipulator of a hapless town council. Nancy is determined to plant an income-producing corn maze park on the field where Tom died. Her maneuverings and machinations force Helen and Cal to rethink the future that lies before them.