"Into our family's DNA is written a powerful trait of courage and faith."
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Portholes to Life by Gene Dick Trafford Publishing
book review by Libby Grandy
In Portholes to Life, Gene Dick takes a creative approach to sharing his family history. Family members become the characters in this historical fiction. In Chapter One, the narrative voice of an elderly gentleman states, "Our family's tales were preserved around the hearth fire in hand-me-down traditions, in stories told from parent to child, from grandparent to grandchild."
The stories begin at the end of the Civil War. Dick writes: "Lost in misty stretches of time, a Civil War mother sat rocking before dying embers, their warmth still spreading across the fieldstone hearth to touch the handmade quilt wrapped around her." Martha Lucinda, the author's great-grandmother, finds out that her husband, Jesse, has been killed in the war. The story continues with a harrowing trip to Iowa and then on the Oregon Trail to the Oregon Territory. The family became farmers and ranchers in the territory now known as Washington, homesteading in the valleys of the Cascade Mountains. Despite the challenges of pioneer living, they survive seemingly insurmountable odds.
The book chronicles Dick;s family history up to December 7, 1941, when the author is trapped on the U.S.S. Oklahoma on "Battleship Row" in Pearl Harbor. The reader emotionally experiences the frightening scenes. Dick writes, "The noise was horrendous as the ship rolled across the bottom of the harbor. The screaming of men was coupled with the screaming of steel structures—both under stresses that they were not intended to know." In his artful use of language, Dick draws the reader into each scenario. Portholes to Life is a literary treat.