Clara Stanton: How I came to Live in Hope Valley
Five Years later
My name is Clara Stanton, and this is my story of how I came to live in Hope Valley with my new mother in-law if that is what you would consider Abigail Stanton was since I had married her son Peter a few days before. I had heard about the mine explosion while reading the paper and it was where peter worked while I lived in Cape Fullerton before moving to Hamilton after in order to earn money to pay some expensive medical bills that my father had before he passed.
I first heard about the town of Coal Valley (now Hope Valley) when a Prosecutor had tracked me down, and asked me to come to town for the coal mine trial, but I could not as I was too busy with work and could not take off. A few days later as I was walking by the train station in Hamilton the headline on the front page of the paper that someone was reading caught my eye and it seemed to be related to the trial going on in Coal Valley. It was then that I decided to make my way to the town for the trial hoping I was not too late to be a witness to help explain some of the things in relation to the incident that had happened to my late husband, his dad who I never got to meet as we were only married for a short few days before, along with 42 other men who died. As soon as I arrived in Coal Valley I asked the first person I found outside, really the only person out to ask where I could find the trial and he offered to show me where since he was headed that way as well. This gentleman's name was Mr. Coulter and he too had come to town to hear the mine trial and to see how things would turn out before he decided to build his sawmill in town and provide the men of the town with jobs. As soon as we walked into the Saloon where the trial was taking place the judge seemed kind of mad that I had interrupted his proceedings and asked if I had a good reason, which I kindly explained which lead him to think over his decision for and for the ruling to be held off until the next day after hearing me and me giving him what I had been given by Peter. The next day when me and the rest of the residents of Coal Valley returned to the saloon to hear the judge's ruling which was to close the mine permanently and forever this greatly angered Mr. Gown the man in charge of the towns mine and all the widows were awarded money as a result of Mr. Gowan's actions. The widows were all very happy with the result of the mine trial and we went to Abigail's cafe to celebrate. After the trial ended it was then that I introduced myself to Abigail, told her who I was, and how I met her son before the tragic incident.
The day after the mine trial ended I had to go back to Hamilton and had promised to write to Abigail about how I was doing since she said I was now her family even though I was only married for two days to her son before he died in the mine incident. When I got back to Hamilton, I never got the chance to write her since I got busy working all the time and kept forgetting. A few months later, Abigail shows up in town and tracks me down to convince me to return to Coal Valley which had been renamed Hope Valley to live with her and even offered me a job working in her cafe as well. I gladly accepted a few days later thanks to Mr. Bill Avery who had convinced my employer to let me off the hook working for him. The day Abigail along with Elizabeth Thatcher (now Thornton) Hope Valley's school teacher who had been in town to care for her sick mother were to return to Hope Valley I barely made it to the train station to catch the train with them back to Hope Valley. This was the start of my life over without having to work as a servant for someone else and in a town where Abigail told me everyone was like family. A few days after moving to Hope Valley I knew I would be happy here. It started out bumpy, but I soon got the hang of things. As the years went by I not only worked with Abigail in the cafe, but I also did some sewing and eventually went to work in Dottie Ramsey's dress shop she opened about a years ago. I even started falling for someone new and we started a relationship a few years ago. The man I started falling for Jesse Flynn was starting and turning his life around from being a member of an outlaw gang and now works with Lee Coulter at his sawmill. We are getting to know and learn about each other little by little, and I can't wait to see what the future will hold for me and Jesse
~ Clara Stanton~