For the Love of Jenny

About the Book

Fulfilled in her job as hospital chaplain at Mercy Hospital and happily engaged to Grant Iverson, a chemical engineer from Richmond, Jenny Carter' s life is complete. She lives in a small Virginia town with her widowed mother, Mary Carter, who is a supportive friend.

Jenny's best friend, Evie Matthews, has two children, Josh and Sally. Evie's husband, architect Dan Matthews, abandoned Evie two years before to marry Connie, a young girl from his office . Evie is a nurse in Mercy Hospital and a friend of Dr. Phil Harmon, a senior resident. When Phil Harmon meets Jenny, he is attracted to her but is disappointed to find that she is engaged to Grant. When Grant, suddenly and with no apparent reason, breaks his engagement to Jenny and moves back to Richmond, Jenny, brokenhearted, throws herself more intensely into her service to the hospital patients and vows not to fall in love again. Phil is convinced that only Grant can make Jenny happy and that Grant will surely return to claim such a beautiful and caring person as Jenny.

After Phil Harmon completes his residency and goes into practice with Dr. Chuck Carlson, he hires Evie to be his nurse assistant. His partner, Chuck, is a widower who has been very lonely since his wife, Laura, died. When Chuck meets Evie, Phil's new assistant, he falls in love with her; but he learns that she is not interested in remarrying. After Evie's husband, Dan, is killed in an automobile accident, she realizes that she is free of her bond to Dan; and, in time, she is open to Chuck's attention.

When Evie convinces Phil that Grant could no longer make Jenny happy, he declares his love; but Jenny is torn by mixed feelings about Grant--an old attraction that is now colored with feelings of rejection, hurt and anger.

Evie and Chuck marry, with Jenny and Phil as their attendants. Phil's parents, Grace and Charles Harmon, come for the wedding. They are delighted with Jenny and happy to learn that Phil hopes to marry her.

Jenny is faced with a false accusation from another hospital employee, Barry McMillan. Grant comes back into the picture and clouds Jenny's emotions. Even Norma, Grant's selfish Mother, gets into the act. Jenny's mother, Mary Carter, normally does not interfere with Jenny's life, but she tells Jenny that Phil is a giver and Grant is a taker. Conceding that this is true, Jenny is left to sort our her emotions. Throughout these events, Jenny retains her strong faith in God and her desire to serve Him in ministry to the sick. Phil, impressed with her obedience and compassion, finds a deeper prayer life and is affirmed in his faith.

About the Author

A native of Asheville, North Carolina, Frances Mills Payne returned there after living in several states. Having tried careers as an English teacher and a stock broker in the Washington, DC, area, she found her true vocation back in Asheville as a writer-editor in a public affairs office. There she wrote news releases and edited technical documents. Since retiring from that job, she does freelance writing. She earned an A.B. degree in English from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and studied graduate English there. She later did graduate work in counseling at Western Carolina University. Working as a hospital chaplain for two years, she learned the value of the chaplain's ministry to the sick. She places her inspirational romance in a hospital setting and tells the fictional story of Jenny, a hospital chaplain.