The Orphan Collector: A Heroic Novel of Survival During the 1918 Influenza Pandemic

Five years later, 19-year-old Pia is still working for the Hudsons, but she feels more like a family member than an employee, even though they are now paying her in wages rather than merely food and board. With the children older and in school, Pia has more time and helps Dr. Hudson diagnose patients. They have not found any more information about the twins or Nurse Wallis, who seems to have disappeared.

One day Pia returns home after dropping Elizabeth, Sophie, and Margaret off at school and finds a man on the doorstep. To her surprise, it is Finn, who has tracked her down after all these years. At first, they don’t recognize each other; Finn has grown into a man. Pia invites him in, and Mrs. Hudson invites them to catch up. Pia explains that she thought that Finn abandoned her, and he tells her that Mother Joe sent him to the train station, telling him a family in Iowa would adopt him. However, when he arrived there was no family waiting for him. Mrs. Hudson gives Finn some clothes and lets him use the bathroom to clean up. Though Pia knows she and Finn have both changed, she hopes that the fact he found her after all this time means something.