This was during the Great Depression when pay was poor and life was hard. There was no power, no telephone, no radio communications. Morrill was constantly at work, not just tending the light, but doing all the other jobs necessary to keep body and soul together. Evelyn pitched in when she could spare a moment from her homemaking tasks, which included home-schooling their three young children. They gardened and raised livestock and harvested Irish moss. When the war came along, their workload only increased.
Despite the hardships they loved their life on the island, and Evelyn's memoir, which won the GG in 1945, is a moving, heartfelt, and beautifully written testimony to the closeness of their family, and the pride and joy they experienced in their isolated life of endless toil. It reads like an idyl.
This book is a Canadian classic.
Evelyn Richardson Memorial Literary Prize
Every year this award for non-fiction is presented by the Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia. It's part of the annual Atlantic Book Awards.
