Patty Reed’s Doll

Chapter 18--19 Discussion


The final chapters in the book. 

The title for chapter 18 says it all--Rescue!  I bet the stranded travelers were surprised to hear that California was now part of the USA.  It would be strange to think of all the things that had gone on while they struggled for survival.

I was a bit shocked at Mrs. Reed sending her children back to camp alone!  (I mean, without her!) when she said that the folks back there were too sick and 'demented' to care for them.  The two youngest at that!  there is no no no way I would have allowed my children to be sent back without me.  I would have chosen to send the others on with the rescuers and take my children back myself.  Those poor little kids must have felt abandoned by their mother.

I was glad it was only a week before Papa came to get them!

I couldn't believe that, after all that suffering and depredation, Patty nearly died!

Shocking events.  I can imagine coming into the town and having food and warm clothes and comfort. It must have seemed like heaven after all they had been through.


I've just had a chance to read the book this week. 

It is with utter amazement that the strength of these folks kept them through that harsh last several months.  The winter story was very reminiscent of the story Laura Ingalls told in The Long Winter. Day in and day out, living on so little or no food, the cold, the accumulated snow, lack of seeing beloved family members.  Their strength was phenomenal.   Wow, would I be that strong to survive such hardships?

The last chapter, last page or two brought to mind a special little doll that my oldest daughter made for me while I attended to another baby daughter at that time who ended up in a neo-natal hospital two hours away.  For 10 days, I was away from our family of my husband and children  who were all very young at the time. That little yarn doll, dressed in a primitive type dress, both made by my then young daughter helped me to get through those days.  Now, whenever I come across her in my drawer, the comfort that she brought me in those hard times comes drifting up to me, tears flow and I recall the gratefulness of that little bit of thread, shaped into the form of a doll and the hope that she brought me that we would all be together again.