We Keep a Light

by Evelyn M. Richardson

In We Keep A Light, Evelyn M. Richardson describes how she and her husband bought tiny Bon Portage Island and built a happy life there for themselves and their three children. On an isolated lighthouse station off the southern tip of Nova Scotia, the Richardsons shared the responsibilities and pleasures of island living, from carrying water and collecting firewood to making preserves and studying at home. The close-knit family didn’t mind their isolation, and found delight in the variety and beauty of island life.

We Keep A Light is much more than a memoir. It is an exquisitely written, engrossing record of family life set against a glowing lighthouse, the enduring shores of Nova Scotia, and the ever-changing sea.

Genres: Canada, Nonfiction, Biography Memoir, Memoir

228 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1945

Reviews

[Zivi Schaffer · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75*

Absolutely, positively, unequivocally charming. What a life!

[Teena in Toronto · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite an interesting tale!

Evelyn was quite a woman. She helped her husband with the lighthouse, the animals and farming, in addition to making the family's clothing, homeschooling her three children, canning fruits, vegetables and meat, quilting, making pillows, all the while lamenting that she didn't have time to get the housework done 'til the weekend!

It sounds like she loved her life ... I couldn't have done it. The isolation would have driven me crazy.

The writing is formal and decorative ... so different from today's books.

[Deborah · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book in every way. Wonderful descriptions and fascinating detail about island life and lighthouse keeping.
This couple were living proof of a “happy marriage and a full and contented life wherever circumstances place a young couple, everything is included in these two—hard work and love.”

[Diane · Rating 2 out of 5]

We Keep a Light describes life on Bon Portage Island off the coast of Nova Scotia from about 1929 to 1945. Unlike some lighthouse islands that were in touch with the mainland only 4 or 5 times a year, Bon Portage is not too far from the mainland and, although the sea can be very rough, there is usually weekly contact with the mainland and many visitors. The details about haying and collecting seaweed and the (few) details about the light are interesting, but I never really was able to see the island very well from the author’s description. It would be interesting to read the story of living on the island as remembered by the three children in the family.
I am not sure why I like reading books by people who were lighthouse keepers or lighthouse keepers’ children. Perhaps it reminds me of our life at the cabin in the early 1980s, when we tried to live on very little money and had no electricity or running water or phone. Generally, the books are not writing masterpieces but I enjoy the stories about the way of life.

[Paula Dembeck · Rating 4 out of 5]

The memoir of a former teacher who moved to Bon Portage island in the thirties.
She was the wife of the light house keeper and together with her husband they bought the island and he secured the light house keeper’s job. It is the story of the isolated life this couple lived with their three children on this island off the southwest coast of Nova Scotia. She recounts the challenges of working to keep the light functional, home schooling her children, trying to raise a family in a small space and struggling to farm a small plot of land.
This book was first published in 1945 and was the winner of that year’s Governor General Award. A fascinating read about a life we all romanticize but in reality know little about.

[Jim Puskas · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book reads more like a personal diary or a letter to the folks back home than a the usual sort of book about a particular time and place. The author makes no pretense to literary skill but simply tells about her personal experiences as the wife of the lighthouse keeper on a lonely outpost island off the shore of Nova Scotia. Everyday events as well as desperate struggles under harsh conditions are recounted in a matter-of-fact way. Somehow, reading it is almost like viewing a series of old-fashioned faded sepia-tone photographs of pioneer days.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have many fond memories of visiting Bon Portage (or Outer Island as we call it around home) for birdwatching and adventure as I grew up on nearby Cape Sable Island. Even though I now live several hours away, reading this book made me feel so close to the island that continues to hold such a special place in my heart. Every time I glance at Bon Portage as I’m passing through to visit my grandparents in Shag Harbour, I think of this amazing family and how much times have changed.

[Corey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great read on every level, Ms. Richardson's journal about her and her family's experiences while at the lighthouse speak of a time very much different from our own. In our consumer society, her accounts of day-to-day activities are a refreshing reminder that we are capable of so much more than we could ever believe.

[Susan Munro · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first 70 pages were a struggle and then I couldn't stop reading! I am currently reading some journals that my mother kept when my brothers and I were very small. I think she and Evelyn Richardson would have a lot to talk about. Mom once told me that you didn't go to sleep each night - you died! How did these women ever manage?

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Memoir of a woman whose family kept a lighthouse in Nova Scotia for 25 years, starting in the 1930s. Not taken with her writing style, nor with the non-linear timeline. I learned a lot about living on an isolated island and running a lighthouse in those days, but had a hard time believing some of the things she described as feats that she or her husband performed.

[R.L. Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent! I read this before visiting Nova Scotia and it helped me appreciate our visit there all the more, with its fascinating descriptions of the Shag Harbour area and its history. A great read about a beautiful and fascinating part of the world.

[Amanda Alexander · Rating 2 out of 5]

Couldn't get into it

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a marvellous book! Winning the Governor General’s medal in 1945, the author describes her family’s life as the light keepers for the Bon Portage (now called the Outer Bank) Island off Shag Harbour, NS. Soon after marriage and while expecting her first child, Evelyn Richardson and her husband Morrill won the government of Canada’s approval to buy this island and be the light keepers. Starting in 1929 and until at least 1954, they stayed on this island, living in the lighthouse itself and bringing up their three children. With no ability to communicate except by waving a flag or sending a flare, there were many times when she deeply wished for a telephone! Usually housebound during the long winters, they counted on their garden produce, wild berries and duck hunting to sustain them.

Evelyn kept journals during her years there and educated her children herself (trained as a teacher) along with correspondence courses. She rarely got off the island but did visit family at other close by islands a few times.

There is much talk of boats, Morrill’s continual work in the fields and creating work arounds for things they lacked, storms and ship wrecks, fog and keeping the light on, all very fascinating and written in beautiful language.

Their three children love being on the island and Evelyn and Merrill are wonderful parents, making their life there full of wonder and enjoyment of the simple things that made up their close ‘family circle’. They even managed to have a piano brought over across the water, so as to have music education.

Loved this book and plan to buy my own copy.

[Jon-Erik Chandler · Rating 4 out of 5]

As someone who grew up in roughly the same region of southwestern Nova Scotia where most of the action takes place, I enjoyed this book as a look into how life used to be as a lighthouse keeper in the first half of the twentieth century. To another reader the details of daily life may be more tedious but there is always an interest in being able to easily imagine the events described. The prose is well-crafted throughout and the author is at her best when recounting anecdotes with a wry sense of humour.

I think the best classification for this book is a kind of memoir and it amounts to someone sitting down and telling you about their life and their beloved home. Some of the descriptions become tedious to the reader (if not the writer) and the prose at times loses a sense of narrative or forward motion. A sense of nostalgia sets in by the end of the book, perhaps because most of it was written during the Second World War and the final chapter, written ten years after the initial book was published, recounts a family tragedy.

Overall I would count this a recommended, if not particularly action-packed, read for someone with some interest in or relation to the subject matter. The life she describes has in large part passed into recent history and she has done us a favour by recording her experiences.

[Hugh Coverly · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 1929 Evelyn Richardson and her husband along with their first child moved to Bon Portage Island on Nova Scotia’s South Shore. In this award-winning memoir, Richardson relates the story of a family growing up on the island, its joys and fun, its challenges and frustrations, its routines and surprises. By the end of the story, there are three children, and many experiences each member of the family has gone through. As Richardson notes quite succinctly, the only ingredients that go into making strong marriages and happy families are hard work and love. This lesson is borne out in We Keep a Light.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I throughly enjoyed this account by a lighthouse keeper’s wife of the years spent on an island off the coast of Nova Scotia. The book was first published in 1945. Richardson graphically describes life in that time and place - gale force winds shaking the lighthouse, cleaning land to farm, preserving food for the long isolated winters, birthing and raising a family, home schooling, risks and pleasures. Here is a woman and family to admire in so many ways.

[SusanwithaGoodBook · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is BY FAR the best-written of the books I've read in preparation for our trip to Canada so far. This lady has a way with words, putting you there with her as she and her husband buy an island and begin to keep a lighthouse in the post-WW2 period. Her life is much more rural and rustic than those in the modern world, but she makes the best of it and even thrives. It's a fascinating story of independence and courage in the face of nature's aggression.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

This family read aloud selection was quite personal for us since we can see Bon Portage Island from our home and often kayak to the islands surrounding Bon Portage. I was tempted to assign this one for a school read, but thought we all could appreciate it. It was well written, dated, humorous, thought-provoking, and pleasant.

[Carrie Drake · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely story of life on a Nova Scotia island as lighthouse keepers. She does well describing the hard work and isolation of the life they chose for themselves and their young family. Evelyn Richardson won the Governor General literary award for the telling . So well deserved. Her chapters on the four seasons with their unique challenges and delights were my favorite. Such an uplifting read.

[Hugh Mosher · Rating 5 out of 5]

I do not know how I did not become aware of this gem of a book before but I am glad I finally have. The edition I read was an edition 10 years after with a very moving added chapter. Having grown up on the south shore of Nova Scotia there were no real surprises but some lessons learned about how a family can thrive in isolation.

[Joanna Halliday · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a charming account of a wife and mother curating with care a beautiful life. Set during a different time and way of life. Evelyn is an amazing word smith and roped me into the landscape and her family with her descriptions and joyful words.

[Laurie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely book. How the world has changed - I can't imagine anyone agreeing to live in such conditions and work as hard as this family did. Such isolation would have broken weaker people.

[Em · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
Charming little book about life on a Nova Scotian island, manning a lighthouse with her husband and young children. Humourous with lots of heart.