Trafford Publishing: Love Among the Survivors

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Love Among the Survivors

by Doreen-Louise Willis

226 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #01-0361; ISBN 1-55212-959-4; US$21.50, C$25.00, EUR17.50, £12.50

"Love Among the Survivors" is about an older group who uses their experience to make a town a perfect world for themselves and everyone around them and have fun doing it.

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about the book about the author sample excerpt catalogue info

About the Book

Into the mindless routine of a housing complex came the first hints of change. Talk of a mysterious town that calls. Talk of changes in the complex management threaten. Then two wildly inventive men and a lot of good cooks bolt, abandoning recalcitrant adult children and grandchildren, affordable housing and city amenities. With fixed incomes, experience and courage, they opt for freedom.
Harry chooses to live and is vulnerable to love. Anne knows that she has lived a somewhat nothing life and almost decides to keep it that way. The bridge club, who can chalk up more experience among them than one would expect, often talk about life and love and can deal with any crisis.
There is the doctor who didn't get away and the farmer who has a silent wife and the Fisheries man who has a pregnant wife and the displaced fisherman who has a boat.
Join them all in an unlikely ocean-side retreat as they revel in living and a return to basics. Sit back and live with love and death and disaster, wood cookstoves, farm food, bad weather and sun with balmy sea breezes. Lapping waves in the evening, woodsmoke, cats and dogs galore make up Arden, the mysterious town.

About the Author

Doreen-Louise Willis was raised in Victoria and now divides her time between the Island and the Cariboo, enjoying the best of seaside and countryside.
She is the daughter of a writer and has spent her working life in an amazing variety of positions in order to support her writing habit. Love Among the Survivors is her first published book. Click here to see: A Place To Belong
"This book is lovingly written and refreshingly devoid of our disturbing modern-day violence. Doreen impresses upon the reader that, just because we become old, we don't have to lose our zest for life, adventure, and human interaction. She sparks our imagination by involving us in the lives of an interesting cast of characters, who collectively decide they are not going to sit idle until they die. She instills in us all the desire to steer our own aging destinies toward personal fulfillment in our twilight years."
Judy Alsager, author of
Gang Ranch - The Real Story

Sample Excerpt - From Chapter Seven

Christmas plans on the west coast are always made in a mood of supplication. This promised to be one of the impossible years. As they made their plans, the men in Arden experienced the dreaded isolation as one storm after another battered the coast. Even in the sheltered cove, winds whipped the sea into huge waves and pummeled the new rooves and windows, testing their strength. Harry moved into his kitchen for a few days. It wasn't worth trying to heat any more rooms. The wood piles dwindled alarmingly. Sid was snug in his bachelor house as far as heat was concerned but he was thankful that Harry was there for company. There was always work to do and their preparations for Christmas went ahead although it may become wasted effort.
"We'll still have a Christmas even if they don't make it," Sid said dolefully.
"Let's just hope they make it," said Harry. "My cooking doesn't go much beyond beans and eggs and I'm getting tired of that."
They hopefully rigged lights on the jetty, stapling and securing every wire. It gave a cheerful look to the dock in the darkness, so they left them on every evening until the power plant shut down at eleven o'clock. The unending woodcutting went on and they scattered ashes on footpaths so that they wouldn't be slippery in frosty weather. They lit fires in the holiday house every day to drive out the damp.
The women in The City experienced the same huge storms, with furious east winds bringing excessive cold and pounding rain, but they were snug and simply stayed indoors. Finally, on the twenty-first of December, blizzard conditions brought driving winds and hurtling snow. Anne, knowing Harry's determination, worried that he would try to come to The City in such terrible weather. On the twenty-fourth the sun came up in a blue sky, there was flat calm at sea and, amazingly, warm temperatures.
At noon, Harry arrived in the station wagon. They hurriedly packed their boxes and bags in the car and fled to Arden while the going was good.
After an uneventful trip with no stops for food or anything else, they got the charter boat and were delivered to the decorated jetty and all was well. They moved into the same house, put on the coffee pot and began stocking the cupboards. The only ones missing were Monica and Randy, who stayed in The Port for the holiday with their friends.
Harry came in, looking concerned. "Lottie, I hope you remembered to bring salt."
"Salt! But I brought lots last time."
"We used it to do the walks."
"Salt! Don't tell me we're out of salt! How can we make turkey dressing without salt?"
Sid and Harry guffawed. "Lottie, we have enough salt to last until the turn of the next century."
"Harry, don't tell me you were kidding. I hate being out of salt. I panic."
"We noticed," said Sid. "You could always cook with sea water."
The holiday was even better because of the suspense. They may have had to spend the holidays in The Complex, in one case, and eating beans in the other, but the weather was kind. On Christmas Eve they ate a tourtiere (a big veal pie) accompanied by all the leftovers they brought from home.
The Christmas dinner had been well planned. The rusty stove in the holiday house was cleaned up, sandpapered and blacked before the women arrived, and it did a fine job of roasting the fresh turkey. Every dish was good, and as the men appreciatively ate their way through to dessert, the bridge club crossed their fingers.
When everyone was replete on Boxing Day turkey sandwiches Robbie told the men about the manager of The Complex retiring and the present tenants leaving one by one. She went on to say that she would like to join them in Arden if they would have her.
Sid and Harry looked surprised and doubtful then Mary and Lottie added their blandishments to the general consternation of the men. Harry diplomatically looked at Sid, who said he would have to think it over; it was all very sudden.
"But Sid," Robbie was intent, "Would you refuse to rent us a house, even a teeny little bachelor house each? It would give you income since we plan to pay you a very fair rent."
Poor Sid was forced to make some kind of a comment. He thought, then said carefully, "It's a big decision. Give me time to think and we'll talk it over before you leave, but I can say this. I wouldn't refuse to rent you a house if we can iron out a few problems like heat and light and emergency plans. I need these as much as you do, but Harry and I were just going to take our chances. We can't let you women do that." He suddenly has a thought. "This is summer I'm talking about. You couldn't possibly stay here in the winter...we'd have to spend our entire time cutting wood."
The bridge club looked at each other and decided to bide their time. They had said enough for now but they were still thinking. After all, the previous residents stayed all year round. Didn't they? Admittedly they worked in logging and each house had a young husband to take charge of things. They could see that Harry and Sid could never cut that much wood, but why should they? There must be other ways and this is what they had been discussing in the previous weeks. Lottie spoke up.
"If we did, we could hire some of the young men that Randy knows to do our wood piles. They seem to need work and I'd pay for mine...probably we all would."
"Lottie ! Aren't you clever," said Mary. Discussion moved to the possibility of moving in the spring even if it meant living in The Port for the winter, leaving their furniture in their houses in Arden. They would give up their suites in The Complex, if Sid agreed to them coming here.
Sid finally said that if it could be done, he thought he would like having them here. It would be less isolated. They went to bed exhausted after all that concentrated effort.

Catalogue Information