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A true story, set in 1930’s Canada, when, due to her family’s financial struggles, a shy 12-year-old girl is sent 2,000 miles away from home to live for two years. While packed with adventure and colourful characters, the solitary train journey marks the beginning of a life of exclusion for Joyce.
On arrival in the west, her kindly aunt provides a stable, nurturing home, but the young outsider struggles to make new friends. She then meets a native boy, who, in the wisdom of the churches of the day, is also separated from his family, and living with foster parents. The bond she shares with Charlie helps her to adjust initially, until his own issues overtake and they too are separated.
Joyce focuses on her schoolwork. She practises mental arithmetic and French conjugations in her head on the way home from school. She does well
academically, but never really recovers from her feelings of abandonment.
Returning home eventually, Joyce has trouble resettling. She qualifies as a nurse, a career she loves, but after marrying and having children, is troubled with bouts of depression.
Her daughter Alana’s voice is heard intermittently throughout the book, puzzling over her mother’s absences. Joyce and Alana’s story, while heart wrenching at times, has lighter moments of humour and tenderness.
A story of the aftermath of early 20th century divorces, economic struggle, and pioneering single mothers, with a long, strong thread of hope.
