reviewsbyerin

You know there are two constants with Jody Hedlund books: The history is going to be good, and you are not going to want to put the book down. You just have to know what happens next!

"The Doctor's Lady" is based on the events of real-life missionaries Marcus and Narcissa Whitman in 1836. In the novel their names have been changed to Eli and Priscilla, and both of them had a heart for missions but neither was allowed by their mission board to go into the field without being married. So in February 1836, when they were hardly more than strangers to each other, Eli and Priscilla married, and soon afterwards began their journey to what would later be Washington state.

It is real historical fact that Narcissa Whitman and her fellow missionary Eliza Spalding were the first white women to cross the Rocky Mountains, setting precedence for the blazing of the Oregon Trail. This novel follows Eli and Priscilla's seven-month journey, and details things like their various means of conveyance (sleigh, steamboat, and wagon), their need to rely on fur traders who did not view their undertaking kindly, and their first encounters with different Indian tribes.

I found it interesting that Hedlund probed into Priscilla's motivation to become a missionary. Along her conviction that it was the Lord's will, Hedlund speculated that an illness had left Priscilla infertile and her desire to be a missionary was a comfort to her in this loss. Narcissa Whitman did have one child when she was 29, but that is after the close of this novel. The story also focuses on what was first a marriage of convenience between Eli and Priscilla, as they get to know one another and come to share more than a joint purpose together.

After finishing the novel I have done more reading online about the lives of Marcus and Narcissa Whitman, who ended up losing their lives in an Indian massacre eleven years into their mission work. Life among the Indians had been hard and very different than what Narcissa had envisioned. I'm thankful for the opportunity to have learned more about this couple and the way they made their mark on history.