genre: history/biography
This is a story of an adventurous woman who in the1850s is converted to Mormonism by missionaries in England and chooses to leave her home and gather with the Saints in the West. Recently widowed, Jean Rio leaves with her children and takes to the ocean along with her journal, where she faithfully keeps a record of the happenings on board as well as on the incredible trek west in covered wagons. While her faith in God is so strong, the reality of living in Brigham Young's Salt Lake City is a challenging one for her and this book chronicles Jean Rio's life along with the history of the time period and how it affects her own story.
The author of this book is actually Jean Rio's great granddaughter, which made it all the more interesting and intimate. There are quotes from Jean's journals but mostly they are short passages - this book is very fleshed out with other contemporary sources. For those tightly bound with the LDS faith, parts of this book might be uncomfortable because of the kinds of activities and events that truly dissolution Jean Rio from her new faith. Frontier living was not for the faint hearted and Jean Rio threw herself into making a place as a midwife and general healer. She farmed and she raised her children and it's really important to me that stories like Jean Rio's are told - she rolled with the punches, acknowledged her mistakes all while trying her best to be the kind of Christian her heart told her to be.
Fun fact: my. own ancestor is a part of Jean Rio's story!! It was so surprising to be reading along and see Jean interacting my 4th great grandpa, whom I am familiar with because of some family history booklets about pioneers that I put together for my kids several years ago.
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