Linda Greenlaw's identity was tied to her island home. As a fishing boat captain and an author (The Lobster Chronicles), she writes in Lifesaving Lessons, she "longed for home while at sea as much as [she] longed for the sea while at home." Although her list of friends was small, her relationship with a man tenuous, she was relatively happy. Little did she know how hiring quiet, hardworking 15-year-old Mariah to work on her boat one summer would change her insular life. When Greenlaw learned that Mariah was a victim of pedophilia, she reacted instinctively, taking Mariah into her home and heart and becoming the abused girl's legal guardian.
The sudden flood of maternal, protective feelings caught Greenlaw off-guard. "I had been struggling for some time with the seemingly contradictory impulses of pulls from the sea and shore, and trying to find the right balance," she admits. "Mariah's presence in my life made finding it that much more difficult. I was never so tempted to hop aboard a boat and leave my troubles behind as I always had as I was now." With frankness, Greenlaw describes the emotional turmoil of the next three years as ward and guardian navigated the oftentimes rough waters of their new life together. Greenlaw was determined to make her new life as a parent work, however, and Lifesaving Lessons is a heartwarming testament to the tenacity of one woman to make a difference in the life of a child. --Lee E. Cart, freelance writer and book reviewer