Note:
Although this is based on a real lighthouse I visited, it's not 100% based on facts because I only half paid attention to the video and spent more time gazing out into the sea and dreaming of this fic.
In 1873, Lionel Luthor, native of Cork, Ireland and veteran sergeant of a U.S. Army artillery regiment became the first keeper of the lights at the Swan Beach Lighthouse, 3 miles north of Midvale. He had moved his wife (a native of Metropolis, on the other side of the country) and two children to the newly erected, two-story living quarters that were a short walk away from the lighthouse itself. It was the state's tallest lighthouse, standing 93 feet tall and reaching 162 feet above the sea. Having undergone construction for three years, delayed due to missing parts and bad weather, it seemed that it would never be opened. When it was finally inaugurated and the light was exhibited at sundown on August 20, 1873, the lighthouse was referred to as the "Swan Beach Light House at Midvale."
This inauguration took place without fanfare. It was a remote and barren place, miles from the nearest town. For this reason, there were no reporters or cheering crowds to watch this historical moment. Only a surly pair of children that wanted to get out of the howling wind, desperate to run into the tidepools and poke at the organisms living there. Lillian held them tightly against her body. Relishing whenever she could hug them for longer than a fleeting second. Trying to keep them still was an impossible task as they rushed off from one thing to the next.
Lionel climbed the 114 steps to light the flame. Which shone brightly in the first order Fresnel lens. A revolutionary lens, imported from France, that was stationary and gave out a bright and clear signal flashing pattern of two seconds on, two seconds off and 14 seconds off. Repeating again and again to let sailors know where they stood in relation to the coast.
Years later, Lena would find a yellowed-out piece of paper, cut out from the Midvale Gazette. The only mention of the light going into service happened on a Notice to Mariners description that was buried inside the newspaper, lost among other, more dazzling news. She had been too busy trying to explore her new home to give it much significance.
What she does remember is what happened two years after.
Her father, Lionel Luthor died while on duty as the light keeper. There was a terrible storm, full of heavy rain that hurt when it hit you. It was mostly ice pelting down on them. Thunder roared all around them. The trees that grew near them, twisted in macabre shapes due to the punishing winds, were being rocked back and forth with such force that their roots could be seen poking out from beneath the dirt.
The family had been inside the light house, tending to the fireplace in the oil room when they heard the crash coming from the outside. Her father put on his thick, black coat, the one with the coarse fabric that made her skin itch whenever she hugged him and ran outside. He wanted to save their chickens, without them, they would starve before the winter was over.
Lillian kept them too busy to worry or argue about going outside to help him. Lena and Lex filled the handheld oil can with lard oil from the 100-gallon oil butts at the bottom of the lighthouse and went up and down the 114 steps every 4 hours to keep the flame alive. Their mother stayed at the top; her duty was to visually check the lamp every hour to ensure that it was burning as brightly as possible. In addition to documenting everything, as faithfully as she could, in the logbook.
Lena thinks that the only reason why her mother forced them all to work themselves into exhaustion is because otherwise their minds would dream up of the worst possible scenarios. In the end, it didn't matter, they couldn't escape the dead that sunk deep into their bones. The only thing that could penetrate the safety of their whitewashed stone walls.
To this day nobody knows if it was the winds or the sea that took him. His body was never recovered. All they know is that his unknowing widow and two fatherless children kept the lights going during that long winter that was full of storms and relentless waves.
Once the storm broke, they were devastated. Their father was gone, and they had to rebuild their barn, the wood had been stripped away by the wind and water. Lena doesn't remember it as being a tragic day. In fact, the thing that stood out the most were the chickens her father had been so bullheaded to rescue. They were inside the living room. Nesting on Lillian's fancy couch, the one she had imported from Paris. Lena and Lex were forbidden from sitting on it, as it was reserved for guests. The chickens were making a mess of the one nice thing Lillian owned. It started with a small chuckle and turned into full blown hold your sides because they hurt so much type of laughter. Tears rolled down their faces and it made the pain of losing their father a bit more bearable.
/
To this day, Lena was especially fond of the little creatures. They had helped them through a very lean winter, proving her father right. Without them they would have starved. The ship that re-supplied them had to wait out the storms for longer than they anticipated. All they had to eat was a cup of corn meal and an egg per day per person.
/
His death was tragic, but the harbor was not left in the dark. Even without receiving compensation for her work, Lillian kept the light shinning due to the peril that came with a potentially extinguished light. This didn't mean that she was not fighting for her rightful place as a keeper of the lights. For once she realized what tragedy had befallen them, and without a means to provide for her children, she petitioned the local collector of customs to write the Light-House Board in Washington, D.C. so that she could be appointed.
/
By this dispensation of providence, his widow, Lillian Luthor and two children have been left entirely destitute. I hereby authorize her to continue at the post occupied by her late husband, as she is now discharging all the duties of principal keeper of the Lights at Swan Beach. I take much pleasure in recommending her for the place of principal keeper as she is a person that is eminently qualified for this position. Before her husband's untimely death, Lillian Luthor and her children, young Alexander "Lex" Luthor and Lena K. Luthor had served as Lighthouse Keepers, without pay, until this very day. Refusing to let the lights go out, even while grieving their father and husband.
While it is unfortunate that veteran sergeant Luthor perished during the storm, his untimely death did not start a chain reaction of deaths due to foul weather. As the light kept shining during that fateful December night largely in thanks to his widow. Showcasing how dedicated Lillian Luthor is to her role as a savior of the sea. I only know of this, as it came to my attention after the fact that 4 ships could have been lost that night but were able to sail safely due to the light that kept burning brightly.
Along with this formal authorization requested on her behalf, I have included a petition signed by a group of prominent citizens of Midvale that support her appointment. Lillian Luthor has an unblemished reputation here at Swan Beach and in Midvale. I beseech you to expedite this request, for we fear that without an urgent confirmation of this appointment and dispensation of payment, she will return to her home state of Oregon.
Signed Johnathan Kent
/
The appointment followed soon after, in 1877. Lillian Luthor was paid $1,000 a year, a salary that was much higher than those offered on the East Coast because the supply of labor on this coast lagged behind demand. Although men outnumbered women 12 to 1, they rushed to the gold fields and mines, where they could earn double. With her new appointment, Lillian enlisted her daughter as first assistant and son as second assistant, which earned the Luthor family an additional $800 and $625 a year, respectively.
/
As years passed, Lena began writing on a personal journal, something away from the sterile log book they were meant to keep as part of their duties. She mainly wrote about the isolation of the lighthouse, followed by the tedious daily tasks that kept her and her family tied to their post. Such as the task of tending the lamp in the lens at night. Or the state of the weather. She wrote about her dislike of inspectors. As they were often former naval officers that demanded the interiors of the lighthouse and their dwelling to be kept spotless. Observing and grading everything, making their reports known to the Light House Service.
Although not part of the tedium of their daily lives, Lena loved to write about the dangers that came with keeping the light during storms. She disliked storms but loved the rush that accompanied the perilous rescues they often had to perform in order to help wrecked seamen. A necessity due to the Swan Beach Lighthouse sitting across a stretch of water that was deemed too dangerous to have a US Lifesaving station on it.
Without the station, they had to shoulder any and all aid towards victims of ships that were in trouble at sea.
There was one incident that changed the drabness of their lives.
/
One fateful January, their supplies were running desperately low because the lighthouse tender, which brought supplies twice a year, had once again failed to make its regular September call. Lena thought about the day her father had perished and was filled with a peculiar dread she couldn't shake off. Lillian, acting as principal light keeper, decided to make the trip to Midvale. While 3 miles on a buggy and horse, a trip on the water would take 5 miles to complete. It was a perilous journey but one that was necessary to fetch food for her family and most importantly, medicine for Lex, who had been sick for the past two weeks.
Due to his illness and her senior position, Lena was in charge of the lights and all that it entailed.
Soon after her mother left, a storm blew in and she was unable to return for five weeks. Sheets of spay crashed over the island, followed by sleet and snow.
Lena remembers how, during the first week, the sea was angry, the tide kept rising and soon the sea made a complete breach over the rock, washing every moveable thing that wasn't a dwelling onto sea. Their home was flooded and the windows, which were shuttered, rattled against the wind. As the tide came, the sea rose higher and higher, making the lighthouse, where they were currently in was the only safe place.
She looked into the sea and gasped. The schooner barge "The Constitution" a large wooden vessel, got into a problem just outside their horizon. They had dropped anchor, but it was no use, they had been battered mercilessly against the side of giant rocks and the barge seemed to blow into splinter. She cried out in despair. Until she witnessed that the small yawl boat had gotten away and was headed toward their island.
Although it was against the rules enacted by the Light House Service to leave the watch room due to the importance of their lens, it was a first-order lens after all, she flew down the metal staircase and ran all the way to the beach.
As the lifeboat got closer to the rocks a big wave picked it up, tipped it over, and dumped its occupants into the water.
The water was icy, the surf broke on the slick, jagged rocks. Her black poplin dress became waterlogged. Making it harder to wade out and swim into that frigid water.
She had to drag what survivors came ashore by hand, one at a time, leaving them on solid ground and then going back in to drag another one.
Lena made the trip six times.
Although she was beyond exhaustion, she took them into the light house and gave them warm spirits to revive them. The "Victoria," the vessel that had been towing them came back to look for them.
It left with four men.
Kara Danvers and Evelinde "Eve" Tessmacher had to remain behind. The men called them too hysterical to be moved but Lena understood the pain she saw mirrored behind their wan faces.
Lena didn't push for conversation. She went about her duties, first recording in the log book what damage the storm had caused, the name of the wrecked shipped, how many people perished, per Miss Tessmacher's numerations, and kept watch throughout the night. Accompanied by a mute Miss Danvers.
/
Although Lena knew their meager rations were dwindling, she appreciated the help both Kara and Eve provided while her brother was incapacitated.
Eve, being the frailer of the two women and having taken a shining to her brother, chose to lend a hand inside the lighthouse. Where she could stay beside her charismatic and funny brother who often hammed up his cough, pretending to be on his deathbed and complaining of the vapors so that he could get Eve to laugh as Lena rolled her eyes and was forced to fetch him a cup of warm tea from the other room.
Kara, whose ample shoulders and firm arms could attest to being a hardworking woman, helped Lena rebuild the barn from all the scraps of wood that washed onto the shore.
Lena, while not being very inclined towards mechanics, remained by Kara's side. Telling herself that as the acting principal keeper of the light it was her responsibility to oversee any and all projects that affected her station.
At first, Kara was serious and the only thing that broke the silence between them was the constant hammering, sawing and occasional grunts that escaped her salt chapped lips.
As the storm subsided, so did Kara's dreary mood.
The glum woman who had not broken her silent mourning slowly transformed into someone softer who smiled gently and turned beet red whenever Lena spared a glance her way.
Because Lex was preoccupied with Eve, Lena only saw it as her sisterly duty and nothing else, to entertain the woman that filled the loneliness that had settled deep within her bones. Making her heart feel like an overflowing well, instead of the desolate place it had been since her father had been taken from them.
/
Lillian returned to find her family and the lights, safe. She was relieved to discover that her son had not only partially recovered but had been awaiting her return so that they could perform the wedding ceremony.
Although they lacked a preacher, they had the Luthor family bible at hand and Kara to bless their union.
They got married on a weekday in their dwelling. Lex was dressed in the best pair of pants and the cleanest shirt he owned. Eve was wearing a dress she borrowed from Lena. They exchanged vows beneath the doorway Kara had hung horseshoes and bells for good luck. Lex gave Eve his mother's ring and they walked straight into the dining room. Their reception coincided with breakfast, as was customary.
Once they were full, Lex and Eve walked outside the threshold together where they pelted them both with shoes as a way to wish him and his wife fertility and happiness in their marriage.
/
As a wedding gift, Kara helped Lex with the construction of his own family home.
It was during this time that something changed between them.
It wasn't unexpected.
In fact, it had felt quite inevitable because of how much brighter Lena's world had become due to Kara's mere presence.
Lex was hiding inside the lighthouse, pretending he was too absorbed in performing his duties to help. Lillian, who was actually performing her duties, was at the top, cleaning the lens and trimming the wicks.
Eve had opted to stay inside their dwelling, preferring to keep a tidy house than climb up and down the 114 metal steps. Lately, for no reason at all, she had found it too taxing on her body. Becoming short of breath midway, something unusual for her. Lena suspected she was with child but didn't say anything aloud for fear of it only being wishful thinking on her part.
With everyone hiding away indoors, Lena was given more uninterrupted time with the object of her affection. She knew that she was acting coy in order to get Kara to lean closer into her. Pretending she didn't know how to properly hold a hammer so she could be properly instructed as to how she should use each and every tool. It was a game they played. Lena would act confused and Kara would stand behind her, pressing their bodies together until the heat radiating from her made Lena's breathing heavy. She would hold Lena in place with one arm and the other would wrap around her hand while she whispered against Lena's ear. Breathing deeply and kissing her neck until Lena giggled and squirmed away.
This time, Lena turned around before escaping those strong arms and the giggle died in her throat. Her mouth was dry. Kara was so close, smelling of sweat and the soap they all shared. It made her body tingle and left her feeling wide awake. Kara stared at her in wonder, holding her face as close as they could be. She came closer but lost heart at the last moment, opting to kiss her cheek instead. Lena felt cheated and so she remedied this by holding Kara's face still, licking her lips and leaning in.
/
After that first, wondrous kiss, it was as if something had swept away the hesitation they had both felt in crossing that line between friends and something more. Lena couldn't get enough of her. They would steal kissed as often as they could.
Some were quick, others served as a greeting, some were gentle reminders, but her favorites were those that seemed to have no end and would make her body come alive.
/
They both wanted to move beyond stolen kisses, but Lena didn't feel comfortable getting them started, for Kara had always been the one to signal to her that she was ready for more and she had yet to get any sign from her that she was ready for more.
/
The sign she had been waiting for came after the sun set but hours before she was scheduled to report for duty atop the lighthouse.
Kara invited her for a walk on the beach. The moon was full and lit their way, making it easier for the frugal side of her to agree because it meant they didn't have to waste a candle to get there.
As they made their way to the spot Kara had picked, the blonde was uncharacteristically quiet. Lena felt as is the sea rushing to the shore was pounding inside her head. Making it hard to feel anything other than nerves.
"Lena. I know that our union will never be recorded as such in your family bible, but I wanted to pledge myself to you. Right here, in the same spot when my life truly began… because you came into my life… but only if you will have me as your companion and wife." Lena shook her head and cried with joy. Laughing as she pressed each yes against Kara's lips.
Kara pulled out two identically braided bracelets she had fashioned out of pieces of blue silk that had gone missing from the only dress she owned but never wore. Opting to use more practical breeches as she performed all the mechanical and hard labor around the lighthouse. Lex was useless with anything that wasn't a compass or cleaning rag.
They exchanged vows as the waves lazily hit their bare feet and soaked the bottom of their clothes. Lena and Kara promised to cherish and love each other wholly and completely, without restraint, in sickness and in health, in plenty and in poverty, until it shall please the Lord by death to separate them. After they kissed, they took turns to tie the bracelets to each other's wrists.
"Now that we have been wed under the eyes of our Lord, I would like for you to have this." Lena started to protest as she cried, touched that Kara would want her to have her mother's necklace, which held her parent's wedding rings. The only thing that she had from her old life.
"Kara… it's too much… I… I can't." She said before Kara could put the silver chain over her neck. She silenced her wife's protests with a kiss and opened the clasp, dropping the pain gold rings on the palm of her hand.
"I think you should still keep her necklace because I know how much your mother meant to you, but we can each wear a wedding band around each other." She emphasized this by slipping the larger ring onto Kara's left hand. Breathlessly, Kara agreed and placed her mother's ring onto Lena's left hand.
/
They spent their honeymoon between stolen moments.
Often in the cover of darkness, when they would each don their wedding rings and stare at their hands in wonder. Relishing the weight of the bands they couldn't wear during the day for fear of being caught.
Lena appreciated Kara's forethought in making the bracelets but petulantly wished she could wear her ring at all hours, to show the world that she too had a family of her own. Even if her world consisted of only three other people besides her wife.
/
The thing about wishes is that they didn't always remain secret desires of the heart.
/
Kara and Lena were both on duty early on the summer morning that their secret was revealed by an act of God.
Kara had been making the rounds when odd noises started coming from the barn, the horses were pounding the floor and the cows were lowing uneasily. Even the hens were clucking nervously and constantly flapping their wings against the straw. She ran towards the lighthouse to ask Lena to scan the landscape with her field glasses for the source of unease when they felt the first tremor.
A violent and continued earthquake shook the lighthouse. The building shook and swayed, as if the five-foot-thick walls were made of jelly. The sound of shattering glass above them jolted them into action. They ran up the metal staircase. Almost falling when Kara missed a step or two in her haste to reach the top. The tremors had bent a connecting tube and jarred the damper so that the lamp flame had run up much higher than it should. The lighthouse continued to sway as they fought to control the flames.
When the earthquake subsided, Kara and Lena began assessing the damage to the lighthouse. The structure had no fissures, having remained intact. The trouble was the lantern. The prisms in the Fresnel lens had been jarred and had struck against each other, making the sound they had heard. Although the lenses were not broken or fractured, the lighthouse had amplified the sound, making it seem as if it was worse than it was, it was still something that should be reported so that the lampist could come out and confirm their original assessment.
They were locked in an embrace, taking a quiet moment after all the chaos, when Lillian came up the stairs. Nearly falling backwards when she realized just what kind of moment she was interrupting. They sprang apart at the noise, red faced and ashamed. Lena held her palms up as she tried to sputter through an explanation but the glint on her left ring finger caught her mother's eye and she followed her gaze.
Her mother looked at Kara's hand, who was too slow to hide it behind her back before Lillian understood what this meant.
Instead of the vitriol she was expecting, a deep hurt flashed across her mother's eyes. "You got married without your family? Why?"
Lena nodded; her explanation interrupted by hiccupping cries. "We didn't want to disappoint anyone… so we thought it was best that we kept this amongst ourselves."
Lillian held them both against her as she confessed that she was, indeed, saddened by this.
"Of course, I'm disappointed." Lillian leaned away from them and began to wipe away Lena's tears. "I was not present at my daughter's wedding. I will never stop feeling disappointment at how we celebrated Lex and Eve in a beautiful wedding, welcoming her into our family, and yet we were not able to do the same for you both… I… I…" Without finishing her thought Lillian sprinted down the stairs.
Her wife pressed a soft kiss against her hairline and breathed in before speaking. "If you would be so kind as to warn me before you invoke another natural disaster whenever you feel like changing our lives for the better? I can deal with capsizing, but the tremors were a bit much."
Lena laughed through her tears, as she pushed Kara's shoulder. "Lord above, you're positively incorrigible."
They heard Lillian ascend the staircase, but they didn't spring apart. Lena had been too distracted by Lex, Eve and baby Alexander Lionel Luthor Jr. following her into the watch room to notice what her mother was clutching in her hands.
"I hear congratulations are in order little sisters… how absolutely Bostonian of you both." Lena felt a surge of affection and annoyance at her brother, who always knew how to be disarming with his stupid boyish charm he never quite grew out of. Even as he a father and family man.
Eve, the more temperate of the pair laughed joyously as she hugged Kara against her. "Now we really are sisters… just like we promised we'd be when we were kids."
Lillian called their attention, frowning at the blank space in front of her. "I have entered both of your names already, but I don't know what to fill out for the date…"
Lena is too overcome with emotion to answer, so Kara answers Lillian through her own tears of joy at this overwhelming acceptance as a full member of the Luthor family. "We were married last April, mid-month, on the 14th I believe, by the light of the full moon. Right by the shore."
/
The thing about history, is that it's just like the ocean. It ebbs and flows in such a way that people often see it repeating itself.
/
Three years after the earthquake, their lives changed again.
Lex spotted something from above but could not leave his post without knowing whether lives were in danger or not. The last couple of times had turned out to be whales and not boats in distress and his annoying, know-it-all of a little sister had yet to let him live it down. On top of this, he was hesitant to venture out in a storm unnecessarily because he had just finished steeping his favorite cup of tea.
As a good older brother, even while being outranked by his little sister, he sent her and her wife out to the shore to see if they could distinguish whether it was a whale or a boat.
They had only gotten past the gate surrounding their dwellings and Lena was already soaked and miserable. The rain was pounding against them. Lena was about to give up when Kara spotted the boat that had run aground near the light. The high winds and rough seas made it impossible to even attempt a rescue. Their eyes stung as they helplessly watched the doomed ship broke and sunk. Kara held tightly onto her wife, who was shaking against her. It hurt to know that nobody could have survived that. Even if they had been on a rowboat.
After a moment, where they silently prayed for the lost souls upon that vessel. They started walking back when a bundle washed on to shore.
Kara waded into the water and dragged it as close to Lena as she could. She reached into her pocket for her knife and cut through the ropes of the water-soaked bundle. Lifting the heavy lid open, they both gasped. In the middle was a box with a crying baby girl, nested safely inside. Upset by being violently jostled, but alive and dry. They both looked at each other, overjoyed and incredulous at this orphaned girl that was a gift from the sea at the exact moment they had begun to stop dreaming about being able to have a family of their own. Resigning themselves to the roles of aunts. Yet here was a perfect angel, born from the foaming waves, delivered right to their waiting arms.
/
She was christened by Grandma Lillian, fittingly called Lucille, French for light. Grandma Lillian wrote her birth in the family bible, Lucille Lillian Luthor born of the sea to mothers, Lena Kieran Luthor and Kara Danvers. Arrived well and healthy. Named in honor of her birthplace and grandmother.
Lena was the one that wrote in the log at Swan Beach about this momentous occasion. But it was lost between the excitement of a shipwreck and the banalities of everyday life as a keeper. As it was meant to be. As a way to safeguard the secret of her birth.
/
4 p.m. radio fog-bell in operation, ship wrecked near south shore due to foul weather. No survivors could be recovered due to choppy seas. No further information.
/
Perspective is a funny thing.
Before Kara, she had felt a kinship to the bent trees lining the landscape atop the cliff. Lena saw herself as they were, with a life that was twisted out of shape by what the sea took from her. Her childhood, her father's life, sailors that couldn't be rescued in time due to choppy waters and tired arms. The list went on and on. Lena felt stuck, forever landlocked, unable to leave her post at the lighthouse and every storm brought new ways to bend her beyond who she thought she would grow up into.
After Kara, she understood that she was like them because regardless of how much life threw at her she would bend and bend but never break. Kara liked to remind her that she thrived in an unforgiving landscape, whereas many others would have broken themselves to change it to suit their needs, Lena found ways to be a part of it. She set down roots in one place and those roots continued to grow, along with her family. Her mother, her brother, his wife and their children, along with Lena's wife and their daughter. The Luthor clan was able to support each other and stay together due to this lighthouse.
The sea had taken things from her, but like the tide, it gave her new beginnings each time it crashed on their shore.
Note: This was inspired by the Yaquina Head Lighthouse in Oregon, near Newport.