From Kathleen D. Bailey's Westward Hope
|
Where do you live, and why do you choose to live there? I have no home; I travel with the wagon train as scout for Pace Williams. At the time of this book I'm on the run from two thugs from my native Ireland, so I have to keep moving. I'm evading punishment for a murder I didn't commit. |
|
|
What is a quirk of your personality that people don't know? My superficial, silver-tongued charm hides a need to be loved — and forgiven. |
|
|
Who chronicled your story, and why do you think he/she picked you? Kathleen D. Bailey wrote this book and I think she chose me to write about because she wanted to show how God's redemption can come to everyone, even a stubborn Irishman on the run. |
|
|
What obstacles did you overcome in order to reach your happily-ever-after? I left Caroline in Summer Pasture, Ohio, because I didn't want her mixed up in my running from the thugs. I didn't know that she carried our child, and that my best friend Daniel married her to keep her from shame. I never forgot her, and when she showed up as cook on our wagon train, it opened all kinds of memories, good and bad. She had to forgive me, and I had to accept her forgiveness and God's, before we settled in the Oregon Country and made our home. |
|
|
Tell us about your special lady. What makes her so special? Caroline Pierce O'Leary Moriarty is beautiful inside and out. When I saw her again on the wagon train, she had a new radiance, the radiance that comes from Christ alone. I resisted for a while, thinking, what would God want with the likes of me? But her forgiveness showed me that God would forgive me too. Her example led me Home. |
|
|
The first time you saw your special person, what did you think? Was it love at first sight or did she have to grow on you? I first saw Caroline at the schoolhouse dance back in Summer Pasture. My best friend Dan and I went to the dance to welcome the new school teacher. I don't know if I loved her, I was too young and shallow to love anyone, but she was mine from the first dance. We became lovers. I was her first, she was the first one who mattered. But I got nervous about the men on my trail, and left before she had a chance to tell me about our child. She eventually married my best friend, who led her to the Lord. |
