|
My husband Wally and I were invited by
Jack Weyland to the Premier showing of Charly, in Rexburg, Idaho.
Wally couldn't attend, so I went by
myself. I hadn't read the book and didn't have any idea what the story
was about, so I went in without Kleenexes. Big mistake.
After it was over and I left the
theater with my tear-stained face, I thought to myself--Mormon Movies are
getting better and better. I wonder where the next stories will come
from?
No sooner did I have that thought,
than it dawned on me that I had a story to tell.
I had just completed my second book of
family histories for my family and my husband's family. They each
contained histories of our ancestors back four generations.
Many of the histories dealt with the
ocean voyages the early converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints made as they emigrated to America and eventually to the
Salt Lake Valley.
I had spent three years gathering
stories from diaries and journals and had grown to love and admire all
of our early ancestors for their courage to leave their homelands and
their strength in the face of the many hardships and trials they endured.
I now had an idea, so I started to
formulate a storyline. My enthusiasm just grew and grew. I spent
eight months researching and organizing my notes before I ever began
writing. I thought I would tire of the project, but I never did. I was simply
driven to complete it, and I worked on it every spare minute for a year
and a half.
It was fun to fashion each character
the way I wanted. I loved weaving personal elements into the story. Many
of Wally's and my relatives' names are in the screenplay. Ninety-five
percent of the incidents are true--taken from journals and diaries and
adapted to my characters.
The emigration of 85,000 Saints on
sailing ships from Europe to America between 1840 and 1890 is a chapter
of Church history that isn't well known among today's Saints. They
are more familiar with pioneers crossing the Plains.
Nevertheless, just about everybody in
the church has had early converts in their families that came across the
Atlantic Ocean, from Europe, to settle the Salt Lake Valley. If these
ancestors hadn't made the sacrifice to come, we'd all still be in Europe
without the wonderful freedoms that are afforded us here in America.
My screenplay deals with the voyage of
the Amazon in 1863, which was unusual in the fact that it sailed from
London. Most voyages of the Saints came from Liverpool, but it was late
in the season, and Apostle George Q. Cannon, who was in charge of the
European Emigration, had to come to London to find a ship that was
seaworthy enough to bring 800 Saints across the Atlantic Ocean.
On hearing that a shipload of Mormons
were emigrating, Charles Dickens, of London, was very interested in this
strange new religion and made special arrangements to come on board to
gather information to write a piece for his monthly newspaper serial, "The
Commercial Traveller."
The Saints from all parts of Great
Britain came together to sail to a new land. Mostly families came on
board, but there were also many returning missionaries and partial
families who were crossing.
The following diary entry from Mary
Fretwell inspired the title and design of my screenplay:
"On June 4, 1863, I bid farewell to my
father, brothers and sisters, and sailed on the Amazon from the London
Docks. I felt very sad as we sailed away, to see Old England fading out
of sight, and especially those I loved. I did not know that I should
ever see them again.
My companions were Ellen Derrick, Ellen
Hackman, and Lizzie Cornell. We were in an upper berth, and Lavinia
Triplett and her sister and cousin in the lower one. So there were
seven of us, and we all kept together till we got to Utah. They gave us
the name of the "Seven Sisters" while on the journey."
I couldn't pass up a title like this,
hence Seven Sisters came to be, and the screenplay followed, depicting the
adventures, hardships, and dangers these seven "sisters in the gospel"
faced together on their ocean voyage on the Amazon. |
