Connie Lapallo - Scrapbook and Excerpts

Introduction	Joan's English Home	Departing England	Life On Board Ship	New Jamestown Home	Learning to Survive
Will the Company Abandon Them?	Cecily in Lady Gates’s Care	Remembering Cecily’s Journey	Plymouth and Pilgrimages?	The Spanish Threaten	Babies Arrive amidst Turmoil
Brutal Martial Law	Nothing to Eat	Hope: the First General Assembly
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	June 2004 in Plymouth, Devon, England Two plaques, including the one below, commemorate theSeaVenture.It, with eight other ships, departed this port on June 2, 1609. The Pilgrim Steps (right) where the Pilgrims and also probably the Jamestown Adventurers last touched English soil. Joan may have gone down these very steps... The “Island House,” circa late 16th century, is an inn where some of the Pilgrim fathers lodged—perhaps some of the Jamestown colonists as well.		When my turn came to board ship, I placed one foot hesitantly onto the gangplank. It shook with the weight of its passengers. It was, after all, just wood and iron crafted by men. As I peered beyond the ship to the ocean, I felt the Blessing’s insignificance to the great water in which she sat. Somehow, it seemed that by placing both feet upon this bridge, I gave up claim to the Old World and committed to the new one, forever. With that realization, a rush of fear shook me, and I wobbled like the plank. And with that fear came a sudden, terrible urge to turn around, to step off, to trust that Will would return safely. To stay. With that fear came also strength, its source unknown to me, and in that strength, resolve. I took a deep breath of salty air, letting it fill my chest even while tears blurred my vision. From Dark Enough to See the Stars in a Jamestown Sky by Connie Lapallo © 2006, 2008