Mabel's Journey

Mabel's Journey is a tale of the immigrant experience and the American spirit. Beginning in poverty-scarred Ayre, in southwest Scotland, and landing in the tiny western-New York hamlet of Busti, this true story spans five generations, from the mid-nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century, following the evolution of our nation as it emerges from the ashes of the Civil War, weathers the Great Depression, and endures two World Wars. But most of all, Mabel's Journey is the story of the people who built that nation: common people with uncommon resilience—people who worked hard, came to the aid of their neighbors, served their church, and fostered love and integrity in their children.
Mabel's Journey unfolds as a series of more than one hundred separate but intertwined stories based on real-life accounts anchored in American history and local culture. Despite the challenges of indentured servitude, poverty, deadly fire, personal tragedy, endless farm toil, and economic ruin, Mabel and her family survive and thrive on faith, love, learning, and judicious doses of strawberry-rhubarb pie. Their story is one of hope, perseverance, and inspiration for anyone whose ancestors came to America as immigrants in search of a better life and who survived the challenges of getting a foothold in a new world. In the words of one reader, "It took me there and made me cry."