Our Trip to Bountiful

Have you ever seen the 1985 movie The Trip to Bountiful, with Geraldine Page and Rebecca DeMornay? It's the story of an elderly lady who wants nothing more than to get back to her home town, and happier times, before she dies. A young woman, portrayed by DeMornay, meets the elderly lady on the bus and learns of her wish to return to Bountiful. The young woman helps her reach her destination.

I first saw this movie many years ago and sobbed like a baby towards its end. It reminded me of the annual pilgrimage my mother and I made to her hometown of Burtts Corner, New Brunswick, as soon as school closed each June and I was out of "captivity" and free to take a road trip. My mother and I went to NB for many years, driving for seven hours to see the old family farm, visit the cemetery where so many of her family, including her parents, are buried, and stay with Uncle Harry and Aunt Jean. Sometimes we took others along on the journey, but more often we went alone.

I consider those trips with my mother some of the most precious times I spent with her. We did a lot of talking and laughing during those long drives. And a visit with Uncle Harry and Aunt Jean was always the best part of the trip.

My mother is gone now, as are Uncle Harry and Aunt Jean, but I discovered during the past two days that it's still possible to take a trip to "Bountiful." This time the trip was with my older sister, Shirley, and her daughter, Cheryl. They hadn't been back to Burtts Corner and Dorn Ridge, New Brunswick, for at least 30 years, and it was fun to be a part of their return.

We had beautiful weather for the drive, as you can see from these photos. The sky was filled with clouds that seemed to be hanging there just to show off their beauty. The fall foliage was at its peak, and the air was crisp. 

We visited the too-few remaining relatives in Burtts Corner, went on to Dorn Ridge to the cemetery to pay respect to the graves of Grampy, Grammy, Uncle Harry, Aunt Jean, and others, drove up to the potato farm my grandparents lived on for more than fifty years, and reminisced.

It was a perfect Trip to Bountiful, capped off with the three of us sharing a hotel room on the Saint John River near the Mactaquac Dam and talking and laughing into the night.

(The photos, from top to bottom are of Mt. Katahdin, in Maine, as we drove up to Houlton to cross the border into New Brunswick; the first view of the Dorn Ridge Settlement, near the end of a seven-mile dirt road from Burtts Corner; the view from my grandparents' farm; and a glorious golden maple on the Saint John River.)