The Long Journey Home continues the story of Jack and Becky Parker as they strive to make a life for themselves on the frontier in early colonial Massachusetts. During a violent and turbulent era, they endure every hardship to see their family grow and prosper…and survive. In their unstoppable love, they will sacrifice everything to be together.

From the battles of King Philip’s War - the bloodiest ever fought in New England - to Jack’s capture and escape and his brutal trek home through the winter wilderness to the wife and son he loves beyond measure, to a determined march to Quebec to rescue twenty-one captives, taken during a savage Indian attack, to the hard-earned happiness of prosperity, follow them as they persevere to make their dreams come true and find the one place that is truly home.

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May 29, 1721

This jotting down of words has become a habit. It began years ago when I was a young man as a way to record the happenings of the day, but now in my old age, it’s a way to pass the long winter evenings and lonely afternoons.

I now find myself telling this story, a second story for you, seemingly without any conscious thought.

My father told me two things in the few years I knew him: If you have something to say, say it without thought of anything but the truth, and that the measure of a man is how he deals with life’s difficulties.

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I think of these more often as I get older and I know both to be true. Much of my life has been in turmoil and it has had a great effect in making me the man I am. Through all of it, I never wavered from what I had to do, no matter how good or bad it was. I stood by my family, ready and willing to sacrifice my life if necessary. Through the years, I have come to believe that hope and perseverance are the two greatest values a person can have, for they will get you through the greatest difficulties and most trying times you will ever face.

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The older you get, the more important certain people and things become. Through the years, there is a process of weeding out the unimportant things. When I consider those things, I find myself sitting in front of the fire, feeling the soft warmth, staring hypnotically at the flames dancing over the logs. My mind falls back to particular times or moments, some good, some not. We all do this at one time or another but I seem to do it more often now than in days past. As we go through life, our view of the world changes and most of these changes are unexpected. That is what happened to us.