Rescued: A Young Mother's Memoir of Survival on Newfoundland's Forgotten Coast

In 1972, twenty-year-old Dawn Neill followed her husband to Pushthrough, an abandoned outport on Newfoundland's Forgotten Coast. For four years, Dawn, her husband, and young son lived as the sole inhabitants of this ghost town-no electricity, no running water, no roads, and no neighbours. RESCUED chronicles their extraordinary survival through brutal winters, life-threatening adventures, and complete isolation. Drawing from her fifty-year-old diary entries and oral histories recorded from "Uncle Jack," an elderly lighthouse keeper who couldn't read or write, Neill weaves together her family's struggle with the vanishing voices of Newfoundland's outport communities. This memoir captures a pivotal moment in Canadian history during the resettlement era, when hundreds of isolated communities were abandoned. RESCUED explores universal themes of motherhood under difficult conditions, the psychological toll of isolation, and the resilience required to endure when all support systems disappear. Neill's honest, unflinching narrative preserves not only her own experience but also the memories of a disappearing way of life. Uncle Jack's stories of traditional outport culture provide historical context while highlighting the profound human connections that sustained the family through their darkest moments. The first volume of Neill's "Journey Trilogy" From Sea to Sand to Snow-RESCUED demonstrates the extraordinary capacity of the human spirit to adapt, survive, and ultimately find meaning in the most challenging circumstances.

About the Author :
Dawn Neill is a memoirist and retired international educator whose teaching career spanned three decades across Mexico, the Middle East, and Canada's Arctic. After earning her teaching degree from the University of Toronto - an achievement completed over ten years while raising three children as a single parent - she embarked on a journey that would take her from small-town Ontario to the far corners of the world.Throughout her travels, Neill maintained detailed journals chronicling not only the diverse cultures she encountered but also her personal transformations. Her debut memoir "Rescued," published in July 2025, tells the story of her first great adventure: four years of isolation in an abandoned outport on Newfoundland's Forgotten Coast as a young mother in the early 1970s.This memoir is the first in her "Journeys Trilogy", which follows her life from sea to sand to snow. Today, Neill writes from her home on the shores of Lake Simcoe, Ontario, where she lives with her partner, Walter Beck, and continues to draw inspiration from her now-grown children, whose own adventures on tall ships encouraged her to chase her dreams.

Review :
"Right up there with 'The Joy Luck Club' by Amy Tan, this book should be read by all young women." -Amazon Reviewer "An incredible, well written memoir of life in a brutal, isolated environment that is impossible to put down!" -Amazon Reviewer "What a page-turner! I would wake up during the night and 'need' to read another chapter." -Reader "Raw, moving, and unforgettable... A powerful testament to the strength and resilience of Dawn Neill." -Reader "This could make a great true life movie!" -Amazon Reviewer