Leila Peters

In Spite of Everything...: For the Woman She Loved Leila Peters

In Spite of Everything is a collection of nonfiction stories about women in love. Three of the women had lackluster marriages before they realized that life had more to offer. One couple is African American, another Puerto Rican. Miriam and Rachael met in a Jewish Bungalow Colony in Upstate New York. One woman was a Catholic nun from 1943 to 1948, and her partner, also a devout Catholic, had abstained from contact with women for seven years, trying to please her family. Ann and Faith met in the Navy in 1954 and witnessed, first hand, the cruel treatment of homosexuals and anyone whom the Navy thought were homosexuals. Quilting brought Laura who was fifty at the time, together with Kathleen, who was forty-one. One couple comes from the Deep South and another is Canadian. Five couples raised children together. These women are PhDs, RNs, abuse counselors, teachers, accountants, principals, hair dressers, hospital administrators, home makers, entrepreneurs, and computer network specialists. One thing brings them all together. Each shared a desire so compelling that she left husband, or family, and risked the alienation of society and the anger of a wrathful God to be with the woman she loved.