Salt To The Wounds

Patricia Martin's life is nothing special, or so she says. She fights her everyday mishaps, meanwhile battling the fact that her brother is joining the army, and her other brother and father work not because they want to, but because they need to to support the poor Martin family. When her world is turned upside down, a tragedy adds salt to her wounds. Patricia is heartbroken and is afraid she'll never recover. She is the glue that holds her stricken family together, and if she fails, she's worried the family will fall apart.
This story is fictional, of course, but takes place in a small town in the 1940s.