Article content“They not only handled the family, but they did their share of whatever needed to be done in that household.”Article content Author Dawn E. Neill wrote a book about her family’s time in Pushthrough after it had been resettled. It’s called Rescued: A Young Mother’s Memoir of Survival on Newfoundland’s Forgotten Coast.Article contentLOOKING FOR SOLITUDE ON PUSHTHROUGHArticle contentWhile Blake’s mother left Pushthrough when the community resettled in 1969, it wasn’t long before it was populated again.Article contentThis time by Dawn Neill, her husband, their son and a family friend. They arrived from Ontario in 1972 with an idea of living off the grid, an idea they had from famed Canadian artist Thoreau MacDonald.Article contentNeill wanted to get away from it all, and MacDonald told them to head east. So, they did.Article contentIt was a journey that crisscrossed Newfoundland and Labrador until they landed at Rose Blanche, which was the end of the road on the west coast.Article contentThey weren’t satisfied and wondered how they could keep going. The only answer they received from people there was to take the ferry along the coast.Article contentAgain, they did so until they landed in Pushthrough and settled at the old merchant’s house.Article content“We just knew this was the place we were looking for,” said Neill. “We spent three days exploring this ghost town and found a house we just fell in love with.Article contentArticle content“It was one of the few houses that had windows facing the ocean.”Article contentSURVIVINGArticle contentNeill kept a journal in those days of everything they experienced there and later in Great Jarvis, where they built a home. She kept audio recordings, as well.Article contentRecently, she turned those into a book called “Rescued: A Young Mother’s Memoir of Survival on Newfoundland’s Forgotten Coast.”Article contentThe book weaves in the story of Neill’s family and that of Uncle Jack Wells, the area’s lighthouse keeper, into something that tells the struggles of a woman and her family in outport Newfoundland.Article content“It’s felt just like something has been preserved,” said Neill.Article content Dawn E. Neill is shown here with her son Nick and their dog Colleen in Pushthrough around the time they arrived in the resettled community in 1972.Article contentWASN’T EASYArticle contentAs you can imagine, it wasn’t an easy thing what Neill did by moving to Pushthrough.Article contentWhen they arrived, the four, plus a pet dog, lived in the kitchen as they went about repairing other parts of the house.Article contentThere was weather to deal with and time spent alone as her husband and a friend went fishing or off hunting. She was also concerned with her young son growing up in a place without any other children.Article contentArticle contentNeill struggled with the isolation that came from moving to an outport from Ontario.Article content“I was really torn because it was a beautiful, beautiful place, but tough at times,” she said. “Nobody to talk to, and a husband who loved going out hunting and leaving us alone.”Article contentEventually, they built a home in Great Jarvis – it’s still there today – and moved there before spending some time in St. Alban’s.Article contentWOULDN’T TRADE ITArticle contentStill, despite the struggles of dealing with the ruggedness of the area, it’s an experience that Neill wouldn’t want to miss out on.Article contentThey were living in a place with no electricity, no running water and they didn’t have a boat at first.Article contentStill, they made the best of it.Article content“I would never regret the time we had there,” said Neill. “It was just one of the most beautiful times of our life.”Article contentTRIBUTE TO OUTPORT WOMENArticle contentIn a way, the stories put out by the Blakes and Neill are companion pieces to each other.Article contentThey both deal with the struggles women faced in rural Newfoundland and Labrador, coincidentally in the same town but in different times.Article contentIn a way, they’re just stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things and they’re about family.Article content“What we wanted to do from an historical perspective was to recognize women and just how strong, just how important they were in the in in their community, in their family, and in their overall environment in which they lived,” said Blake.Article content
Books offer insight into women’s lives in early outport Newfoundland; resilience and strength
