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At six years of age, Emma Clarke has no idea that she is about to embark on an adventurous journey when her family leaves their wooded Ohio surroundings only to end up relocating from Kansas City to San Francisco before settling down in Seattle. Tragedy strikes when Emma loses her oldest sister to scarlet fever and then her mother a few years later. As a young adult, Emma takes a teaching position in the Seattle area. Although the commute from home is far, Emma compensates the distance by investing in a parcel of land via homesteading and has a small cabin built on it. Once again, Emma is totally unaware that her latest adventure will turn into a cherished haven when she meets and marries the love of her life, George Hazen Pratt.
Randell's latest is a lightly fictionalized work on the life of her husband's grandmother, Emma Clarke Pratt. As Randell states, "This book is based on facts gleaned from stories remembered by the family, diaries kept faithfully by George Hazen Pratt, letters from George Hazen Pratt to Emma, and facts verified by avid genealogist George Milton Randell, my brother-in-law." Randell fills in fictional yet apt dialogue in between a flood of correspondence from George to Emma. While the letters give rich detail to George's surveying jobs in the Yukon region, the common thread that ties Randell's narrative together is their intense love. The binding element unites Emma and George amid long bouts of separation because of his assignments, relocation because of job change, times of sickness, and eventual death. Randell's quasi-fictional account offers a glimpse into life during a time period of slow yet consistent evolution of an industrial nation. Although "a story well worth recording for posterity," Randell's familial narrative offers appeal to West Coast historians.
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