A Woman Named Damaris

A summary of A Woman Named Damaris (Livy Massie 14)

In the beginning of this story, a young 15-year-old girl finally finds the courage to run away from her alcoholic, abusive father. She finally manages to do this but only with the help and blessing of her mother, Mrs. Withers. Mrs. Withers gives Damaris two precious heirlooms from her grandparents: a lacy golden brooch and a beautiful watch. Damaris’s mother then tells her that her name is from the bible and sends her on her way.

Damaris then walks for days with only a little food until she reaches a town. She works as much as she can for food. Eventually, Damaris decides that it’s time to move on, so she walks from one prairie town to another. Finally, she manages to get a ride west on a wagon train if she babysits a couple’s kids.

Damaris travels with a family with the last name Brown until they reach a little town called Dixon. While here, Damaris is taken in by two kind ladies, Mrs. Dover and Mrs. Stacey. Between the two of them, Damaris finds a peaceful and loving environment. She works in the store and for the two old ladies and lives in that little town for quite a while when she meets Gil. Gil is not like other men she has seen. He’s never drunk or abusive and is actually kind. She feels awkward around him and is in denial of her feelings for him. Damaris wonders if she could ever actually love someone.

One day she meets a little girl and her mother. She starts seeing them in the store every so often and learns that the mother has four little children, Abbie, Tootles, William, and a little baby. Her husband is much like Damaris’s father. He is alcoholic and abusive. One day he just disappears and the mother and baby are left in a shack, starving and sick, with the other three children to look after them. Finally, the mother and baby die, and the other children are left as orphans.

Later, at the town hearing, Damaris decides to take the kids and try to mother them. The judge agrees because Gil, Mrs. Dover, and Mrs. Stacey volunteer to help Damaris, Abbie, Tootles, and William. Arrangements are made, and Damaris’s little family moves in to the newly renovated shack.

A few weeks later, Gil proposes to Damaris and she says yes. Damaris also receives word from her mother telling her that things have improved at her old home. Her father has finally dropped his old habits. Damaris, with the help of all her new friends and family, realizes she is finally happy. That, and loved. ( )

From cover: "She had felt so alone for so very long..."

LOVED IT I read it twice ( )