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The Last Frontier of the Fading West

by Helen Picca

Jennifer is a young, innocent girl, happily living a carefree existence in a safe, small seaside community, when on October 5, 1942, a fateful event changes the course of her life forever. The sinking of the “Larry Doheny’ by a Japanese submarine off the coast of Port Orford, Oregon, propels her into the horrors of World War II, where she meets Jack Long, a young Navy man rescued from the ship. Sensing that he is somehow different, she is drawn to him as she helps treat his wounds, relishing the chance to get to know someone from a big city—Los Angeles. But before she has the chance to learn more, he is whisked away by the Navy, and, just as unpredictably, she sets off to Portland as a Red Cross volunteer to care for the many casualties from the war in the Pacific.
Eventually, she returns home to make a life with her high school sweetheart and live happily ever after—or not. A memoir of sorts, spanning a half century, from World War II to Vietnam to Kuwait, this is Jennifer’s story of redemption—for those who bear the horrible scars of war; and of love—great love for a man, family and a town she chooses to call home, Port Orford. Isolated on the very edge of the continent, steeped in history and fraught with hardships, disasters and tragedies, it is The Last Frontier of the Fading West.
Historical Fiction