She and her parents woke at five A.M. and mumbled through breakfast and then set out to do their chores. They rebuilt the goat pen, chopped wood, tended the garden, made soap, caught and smoked salmon, tanned hides, canned fish and vegetables, darned socks, duct-taped everything together. They moved, hauled, nailed, built, scraped. Large Marge sold them three goats and Leni learned how to care for them. She also learned to pick berries and make jam and shuck clams and cure salmon eggs into the best bait in the world.
I’m torn. I’m proud of her. But It breaks my heart that Leni has to trade her childhood for survival. Yes, she’s learning resilience, discipline, and strength but all of that at the cost of her innocence. Alaska is shaping her into someone capable and wise beyond her years, but also robbing her of the chance of simply being a kid. Though with parents like hers being just a kid was never a possibility.
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