Jenner-by-the-Sea

The last section of Her Daughter’s Dream (before the epilogue) takes place in a house on the California coast.  Rick’s parents lived on the hillside of Jenner-by-the-Sea over-looking the Russian River as it flowed into the Pacific Ocean.  This is the house I describe in the story.  Our family gathered in Jenner as often as possible.  During the years Rick and I lived in Southern California, we spent most vacations driving north and spending time with Mom Edith and Dad Bill.  (I also drove our three children north each summer to visit my parents.  They lived north of Brookings-Harbor, Oregon on a hillside overlooking Whaleshead.  Two sets of parents, and they both loved being near the ocean.)   

Setting the end of the story in Jenner felt right.  It was a house filled with love and rampant with good memories.  When Dad passed away and Mom had to be moved to convalescent care, our family considered keeping the house.  It didn’t take long to realize a house is just a house without the ones who made it a home. 

Still, memory is like a warm fire burning in the hearth. The house in Jenner was the perfect place to bring Hildemara, Carolyn and May Flower Dawn together, the perfect place to show love in action and how God can bring restoration, even in the most difficult circumstances.