None to Give Away

Jim and Elsie Doig had confidently invested in a future together on a Montana ranch. Then in 1940 Jim was fatally injured, leaving Elsie a young widow without much experience of the world. Overnight she had to learn how to fend for herself and her five small children, including two sets of twins. Well-meaning relatives and friends advised her to put some of them up for adoption, but Elsie was determined not to separate the family.

None to Give Away is the story of her struggle to support her brood while running a gas station and teaching school, to maintain a long home on Dry Creek, and turn rented quarters into a home, to cope alone with all the minor catastrophes incidental to raising children. And to do it all without neglecting her own needs. The narrator's humor cuts to the heart of things and her honesty permits her to realize at moments that it is harder to live than to die.