Lynne Martin

The Healing Powder Lynne Martin

Olga Heinz has two loves-creating recipes and nursing. For thirty years, she clocked countless miles walking on every floor of the University Hospital. She mentored generations of newly graduated nurses and fed hungry staffers with her baked goodies. As she struggles with budget cuts and ever-changing hospital policies, Olga is motivated by a desire to help her patients, no matter what it takes. She encourages her student nurses to strike a balance between offering simple human comfort and applying the latest and greatest breakthroughs in medical science. Then one average day, through a series of accidents, Olga discovers a medical breakthrough-a shocking miracle cure that is deceptively simple, biologically complex . . . and morally ambiguous. But she tempers her excitement with clinical, professional reserve. Despite her excitement, she knows that she can't share her findings with her peers, or the love of her life, Dr. Martin Hood, until she can verify her results. Olga reaches out and finds a reluctant partner in Steven Whitters, a young orderly at the hospital. Together, they begin to test the healing powder on the unsuspecting patrons of a local homeless shelter-where forgotten and lonely souls seek the simplest of necessities and some small measure of human comfort. But Olga and Steven are so absorbed in proving their potential miracle, neither realizes the terrible cost the cure will exact. Is it a miracle-or a curse?