After devoting much of her time and energy to medical training at Dr. And Amanda agreed with her father’s decision. Jonas Broadmoor had avowed his work would not permit him to leave Rochester. But that idea had been immediately vetoed by her father. Especially not those suffering from cholera.Īt the first report Amanda’s mother had suggested the entire family take refuge at their summer estate located on Broadmoor Island in the St. Women working in the medical field were highly frowned upon, and a woman of Amanda’s social standing was reared to marry and produce heirs, not to tend the sick.

Their attitudes reflected those of their peers and the world around them. All that had changed, however, when she decided to seek a career in medicine.Īt twenty-one, Amanda felt she had the right to make her own way in life, but her father and mother hardly saw it that way.

Amanda had never known need or want, and when bad things dared to rear their ugly heads, she had been carefully sheltered from the worst of it.

Of course the Broadmoors were among the social elite of Rochester, New York. And for those who didn’t possess the wherewithal to flee, the report would serve no purpose but to heighten their fear. After yesterday’s report, more would surely follow. The paper had been quick to report four recent deaths attributed to the dreaded disease, and with an early spring and unrelenting rains, a number of prominent families had already fled the city. No doubt the glaring headline had increased sales for the owner of the press. Certain this most recent newspaper article would cause yet another family squabble, she had hidden the paper in her bedroom the previous evening. Turning the headline to the inside, she creased the paper and slipped it beneath a stack of mail on the marble-topped table in the lower hallway of her family’s fashionable home. Why must the newspaper exaggerate? People would be frightened into a genuine panic with such ill-advised news reporting. Rochester, New York CHOLERA ON THE RISE! EPIDEMIC ANTICIPATED IN ROCHESTER!Īmanda Broadmoor glanced at the imprudent headline that emblazoned last night’s edition of the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.

A surrendered heart by tracie peterson