She finds him living in her thoughts as she goes about the daily business of keeping watch. Nothing has ever made her question her decision to stay with her parents at the lighthouse until she meets artist George Emmerson. Unlike these siblings, Grace is quite content living a solitary and quiet life amidst the rocky islands and the spraying waves. Almost all of her other siblings, besides one younger brother destined to one day take over from their father, have moved on and made lives for themselves on the mainland or at other lighthouses. In 1838, living at the Longstone Lighthouse where her father is the keeper, Grace helps out with all aspects of his job. Matilda works on scrapbooks of famous female light keepers, including the famous Grace Darling, who has a connection to Matilda's own great-great granny, Sarah Dawson. Harriet keeps the lighthouse in Newport, Rhode Island and although she doesn't easily embrace Matilda's presence in her life, she does give her a way to stay busy and engaged while waiting for the baby. Matilda has shamed her parents by getting pregnant so they send her off to America to live with Harriet Flaherty, a relative she's never heard of before. (Just look at this cover!) But even for people with this lighthouse fascination, how much thought is really ever given to the actual keepers, their families, daily life on small rocky outcrops off the mainland, and to the dangerous but vital duties they performed, especially in the time before lights became automated when winter storms wreaked havoc on ships in treacherous waters? Hazel Gaynor's newest novel, The Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter, presents the life of Grace Darling, a lighthouse keeper's daughter who became famous in 1838 for doing what she saw simply as her duty, and of Matilda Emmerson, an unmarried, pregnant, Irish woman in 1938 banished to America and the care of a distant lighthouse keeper relative until her baby's birth. Lighthouses are certainly scenic, romantic, and eternally appealing. They visit local lights and climb the steps up into the towers. Lots of people have a real fascination with lighthouses.
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