This is the story of one family's struggle and triumph in search for more from life. Two men, one in Italy and the other in Scotland, make the decision to leave their wealthy families and the women they love to make a fresh start in distant Canada. Their dreams of a better life as farmers are thwarted by the reality of what it means to be an immigrant and they are driven deep into the belly of blackness that is a coal mine. Swallowed up by the pattern of life in coal mining camps, they find themselves constantly moving from town to town across Alberta and into British Columbia, looking for a possible way out.
Jim Elliot was born in a coal-mining town. He attended eleven different schools as his family moved from mining camp to mining camp. Following six years at the University of Alberta, Jim graduated and was ordained as a United Church minister. The next forty years were split between Alberta and British Columbia as he worked in rural areas, suburbs, First Nations communities and finally as head of a large inner-city mission in the downtown eastside of Vancouver. On retirement he moved to the Sunshine Coast, spent some time volunteering with the local hospice community and then joined a writing group. He and his wife, Geniene, have five children and eight delightful grandchildren.
