The Homeplace

Stepping off the train in Vermilion, Ivy shivered despite the new warm winter jacket John had insisted on purchasing in Winnipeg. John's warnings had not been sufficient to prepare her for how small and bare the town was. The "Great Fire' of April 1918, only two years prior, had left only a handful buildings standing and the few left were mostly rough wooden structures, crudely erected with not a lick of paint on most of them. This was Ivy's first taste of how her life was about to change after her marriage to John. At seventeen years of age she left everything behind her in Mississippi to follow her husband's dream of homesteading in Alberta. Sharing stories handed down by her grandparents and father, the author puts herself back in the early 1920's and uses Ivy's voice and perspective to depict a tale of trials and triumphs homesteading in the early years near Vermilion, Alberta. From John (her grandfather) falling in love with the tree-covered flat quarter (that the family still farms today), to meeting Ivy in Mississippi and bringing her home to Alberta. Through losses both material and personal, the author retells of heartache and small moments of love and humor that her grandparents shared. As their story unfolds we are reminded of the early settlers' strength of character and ability to endure hardships that we can only imagine.