I never meant to break from this story as I did, nor did I expect it to be sidelined for so long. After years of musing and dealing with uncertain anxiety, I have changed various things from the original chapters. while the scenes still exist they exist in different places.

This will not be entirely historically accurate, but that is okay, even Rilla of Ingleside isn't all that accurate! I wish for this to be a journey, a fun journey.

So Welcome back to the Sunsets and Homecomings Universe!

Typical warnings for this story are

WWII Wartime

Period-Typical Racism

Period Typical Attitudes

Discussion of Abortion

Implied/Referenced Abortions

Death of an pet/animal


Spring 1939


Mrs. Marilla—Rilla Ford nee Blythe often woke well before her children. Creeping through the halls she saw pieces of the past every morning as she swept through her house. In her mind, the memories of first steps, first words, loose teeth and skinned knees were all fresh. Nineteen years of marriage, there had ups and down, children, different houses but most of all there always had been love. This morning was one like every morning for her. A moment of peace and quiet before her day started. She took her cup of tea on the back porch in her housecoat, as she contemplated her day and life until she heard the first alarms of the day going off.

"Ready for the day?" Ken her husband asks her from the door already half dressed in his suit for work.

"Are we ever?" Rilla smiles and gives him a quick kiss as she passes. Nodding her head while smiling to her housekeeper in acknowledgement of the morning was beginning.

"Rowena, it's time for breakfast!" Rilla called out from the foot of the stairs. "You as well Oliver!" She added.

"Why are they always late mummy?" The small dark hair child asked who was still in her nightgown with braids in her hair sitting on the stairs. She usually comes down after hearing Ken in the morning. In her arms was her stuffed Peter Rabbit, one of her favourite things to carry around.

"Because Clara, they like to sleep," Rilla told her. "Let's go see what's for breakfast?" She told her youngest. Who ran past her to the kitchen to where Ken was already sitting. Clara had been a surprise after many years of careful planning. Still, she was instantly loved by all in the family.

"Daddy!"

"Clara!" He said back as Rilla watched him gather her up and hold her in the air for a moment as she giggled. At forty-five he had seen many things, done many things. His hair was greying at the sides, and the long scar down his face was faded to a pale silver against his tan skin. He lifts Clara into her seat and kisses her on the top of her head.

Rilla herself at thirty-nine was lovely as ever. If anything, her third child had made her a touch plumper than her younger self. Her hair was still ruddy though she had cut it to make it more manageable. Wet it sat a few inches below her collarbone, but when she brushed out the curls it was shoulder length with large fluffy curls. Ones that emulated some of the rising Hollywood stars.

Oliver was the next to come, already dressed in his school uniform and his hair brushed and slicked down until most of the curls disappeared. At fifteen it felt like he was constantly in a growth spurt and sprouted overnight so that Rilla was forever hemming his pants to make them a touch longer. He was a fair mix between his two parents but as he grew older he favoured his father more and more. Dark hair and stormy grey eyes, tall and lean had girls giggling whenever they walked past him. Rilla noticed on various occasions that her little boy was no longer a little boy, mainly when she found him shaving next to his father every few days the fine hairs that were his moustache

"Doe is freaking out in her room about clothing," Oliver said to his parents, his voice deepening with each passing month it seemed. "Oh bacon this morning," He said as he saw what Mrs. Clarke was cooking on the stovetop. "Do you need help with anything?"

"You can set the table as usual," Mrs. Clarke told him. "And make the toast if you wish."

"Bunnykins please Ollie!" Clara calls out to her brother. She was obsessed with her bunny kin plates. Oliver looks to his mother for permission. Rilla just nods her head and waves permission.

"Mom!" Rilla heard her eldest daughter call out from upstairs.

"I'll go check on her," Rilla sighed. "Just start breakfast without us," she took a drink of coffee before she headed towards the stairs.

"What is it, Roe?" Rilla asked as she stood in the doorway of her daughter's bedroom. It had been papered in a pretty floral a few years back when she had grown out of the previous theme.
Rowena was still in her pyjamas, as she stood by her unmade bed, behind a pile of clothing that she had tossed on the floor. "I don't know what to wear, it's supposed to be a tea party, and we're supposed to dress fancy and not our uniforms and I can't find what to wear."

"Okay, calm down," Rilla sighed. "Your Aunt Lily makes you plenty of pretty dresses to wear, we can quickly steam one before the party."

"But all the girls have store-bought party dresses," Rowena whined.

"You need to check that vanity, there are young girls out there with much less right now Roe," Rilla warned her daughter.

"But, but!"

"No buts, clean up your room, make your bed. Get dressed for school before you will be late," Rilla shook her head.

Rowena scrunched up her nose ready to contradict her mother. "I'll send your father up and he'll choose something for you to wear," Rilla warned her. "Ten minutes," she said before shutting the door.

"The girl is going to be the death of me, she's only turning fourteen," Rilla muttered, it could only get worse in Rilla's mind the hormones that came along with growing up. She was just waiting for the day that she would be called upon to embark on her female knowledge to her daughter. All while being armed with belts and sanitary napkins.

"Mummy, can I wear my pretty dress, like the Shirley Temple one?" Clara asked as she saw her mother.

"Not today Clara, you'll be spending the day with your Aunt Lily," Rilla told her as she sat down and had another drink of coffee. She didn't know what to do as Clara was supposed to start school this fall. Polio had run rampant around the past year's city and the last thing she wanted was for her baby to catch it. Clara had barely seen the department store because of Rilla's reluctance to bring her anywhere that could cause her to get sick. Only a few times a year did she allow it. Otherwise, Clara stayed home or went to one of her aunt's houses if Rilla was working. The older kids would most likely be fine being almost teenagers, but Clara. Clara was much too susceptible to it and Rilla refused to let her potentially catch it.

"But Mummy," Clara whines. "I have no one to play with there why can't I go play with Phoebe?" Rilla hears her daughter as she watches Ken fold the paper and throw it aside.

"You always have fun with your Auntie Lily, and Phoebe and Aunt Marianne have things they need to do," Rilla tells her, frowning at her husband. The rumblings all over Europe and now across Asia it did not settle well with him.

Ken refilled his coffee cup as Rowena finally managed to come downstairs with the red hair that she had pinned back from her face. Wearing a light blue dress with puffed sleeves and a square neckline with a well-defined waistline with a bow in the back.

"You look lovely Bambi," he said with a smile.
"You need to stop calling me that," Rowena made a face. "I'm almost fourteen."

"Yet you'll always be my Bambi," Ken said with a grin and kissed the top of her head. The nickname had come from Oliver's nickname as a child. Calling her Doe as he couldn't pronounce his R's for the longest time. An adorable lisp that his mother battled herself had passed on to their son. It was when Rilla came home with a new book called Bambi when the children were three and five, that Rowena had fallen in love with the story. Down to painting the characters of the book on the wall of her new room when she had been five. Ken had taken to calling her Bambi affectionately as he read to her at bedtime when she had called herself a Bambi.

"Ollie, you're good for cycling to school?" He asked his son who looked up and nodded as he chewed his mouthful of bacon. The young boy nodded as the back door opened and a tired look young blonde-haired man came walking through the doorway. He placed his police hat on the peg and cleaned off his boots.

"Long night?" Ken asked as Jimmy unbuttons his uniform jacket and shrugged it off.

"Night shifts are the worst," Jimmy yawned as he reached for bacon.

"Did you catch any bad guys?" Clara chirped from her spot as she climbed onto her chair meaning to go sit on Big brothers lap. Still holding Peter Rabbit, her little pale legs hanging over one side of Jimmy's leg as his arm wrapped around her to hold her still for a few minutes

"It was a fairly quiet night Clare." Jimmy smiled at her, "Which is always a good thing for us. It means people are behaving," Jimmy told her.

"How do you know who is the bad guy, and who is the good guy?" Clara asked him as he tries to take a bite of his toast. "Do they just look bad?"

"Clara let him eat please," Rilla told her with a stern look. Clara pouted but sat back down on her chair and picks at her breakfast.

"It's a bit more than that," Jimmy said after a moment.

"Can't I stay home with Jimmy? That way I can wear my pretty dress?" Clara looked at her mother.

"Jimmy has to sleep and then has his paperwork today, and Mrs. Clarke has her afternoon off," Rilla shook her head. "You are stuck with Aunt Lily and me today Clare-Bear." Clara pouts and pushes around her porridge.

"Eat Clara," Ken steps in to get her to eat. She looks at him and skims off the sugar from the top and eats it before pushing it away. Rilla shakes her head sighing, and Ken merely finishes the last few spoonfuls so it wouldn't be wasted.

With the children and Ken off to school and work and Jimmy going to get some sleep for himself. Rilla did a sweep over the house with Clara helping her, picking up toys and running over things with a dust rag. The children each had their chores, having a housekeeper did not get them out of chores.

The house was well lived in, pictures lined the walls of all the childhood milestones and portraits that Ken had taken of them each year. Baby photos, to blossoming young men and women.

Her own diplomas and graduations of the years past. All her hard work and studying throughout the years.

Dr. Blythe. Another doctor in the family, only in another specialty.

Of course, there are photos of Jimmy's high school graduation. Then his commencement from the Police academy, something that still terrified Rilla. He still lived with them despite being close to twenty-three. He had yet to find a girl to want to settle down and get married to and when it came time for college, Ken had sat him down with a short embarrassing talk about being a responsible man. Reminding him that men often got off the hook for such things, but women did not. That he didn't want to hear about some girl crying to Rilla or Aunt Marianne about some boy named Jimmy getting her pregnant and running away.

Wedding anniversaries and family reunions were also present. Portraits of their parents, and siblings. Everyone was there that mattered to them.

"Let's get you dressed Clare-bear," Rilla said to her daughter who was still in her nightgown and slippers. With hands on her little one's shoulder, she directed her to the stairs.

"Mummy?"

"Yes, Clara?" Rilla asked.

"Can I wear my pretty dress tomorrow since it's Saturday?" Clara asked innocently.

"We'll see." Rilla sighed.

"Mummy?"

"Yes, Clara?" Rilla said as she nudged the child up the stairs.

"Can I wear it to the church picnic or when the ladies come over for tea after church, I'll be good, a good little lady like Doe is when they are over?" She asked, knowing she often got sent to the backyard when Rilla had the ladies over for tea on every third Sunday of the month in the warmer months. A tradition that went back since they moved into the house it seemed to the children.

"If you are good and eat your vegetables at dinner," Rilla told her. "I will think about it, now come on and don't dawdle. Auntie Lily is waiting for us after all."

Sometimes Rilla wondered why she had waited so long for Ken to teach her how to drive. Once she got the handle of the vehicle she found it fairly easy and enjoyable! As the children got older it was easier to haul around the children than wait for public transit. She drives to her sister in laws house. Clara was babbling in the backseat of the car as she hugged her dolly and of course, Peter Rabbit that she brought along. Her dark hair was pulled back from her face into two pigtails tied with pink ribbons. While her dungarees were dark blue denim with a white blouse underneath. A blouse that had pink stitching around the collar and the cuffs of tiny puffed sleeves.

Shirley and Lilian's house was modest and had an air of Parisian charm to it once inside. They had come back six years previous. They had moved back in the middle of a crashing economy, though at least Shirley had come back with a job at the local university. They found a place a two neighbourhoods west of the Fords. Near to the infamous Casa Loma that had been built and forever changing hands since the hotel went bankrupt and been seized for taxes.

The children were grown now as well. Elodie was becoming a beauty with her strawberry-blonde hair and greenish eyes. While Jasper and Lunette had given everyone a run for the money, twin jokesters. Jasper was light brown hair with skin that tanned in the sun with dark brown eyes. While Lunette was fair as her namesake, silvery blonde hair, lighter than her mother's, with light icy blue eyes.

"Salut, mon cheri," Lillian says as she opens the door. Swooping in to kiss Rilla on the cheeks and then down to greet her niece.

"Bonjour Aunty Lily," Clara says politely, using the French word instead of good morning. Lillian kept up their French at home, mostly as the children went to English school and spoke English more and more.

"Come in for a minute?" Lillian asks motioning to Rilla who nods her head. The front room is filled with mannequins and drafting paper, and fabric of course. Lillian had written with an idea when they moved, she explained the idea of a small magazine with tips and tricks. How to refit, and redo clothing. Mend and make-do sort of attitude. At the same time, giving young girls a chance to learn how to sew themselves. She could give her tips and tricks. Create patterns and give instructions on how to make the pattern and then the garment, ranging from easy to more advanced given the month. The booklet would be added to the regular woman's magazine. While paper patterns in various sizes could also be sent in, which is where profit came into play. Over the years it had become a popular section of the magazine that had morphed into its own small subsidized version of the ladies magazine.

"I wanted to show you a sketch for Rowena when it comes time for her first formal in high school," she tells Rilla.

"Do get a new dress?" Clara pipes up as Rilla looks at the sketch, essentially okaying it, even if the neckline would give Kenneth a fit.

"Don't be rude Clara," Rilla warns her gently, but also knows that she and Lillian were already working on her new holiday dress. Rilla made some clothes for her children when she had time, but left the less-than-practical things to her sister-in-law these days. "Now be good for Aunty and I'll pick you up in a few hours," She bends to kiss Clara goodbye.

"Thank you for watching her for the morning, I shouldn't be long I just want to check on a few patients," Rilla tells Lillian.

"Izz never a problem you know that," Lillian waves her off and shut the door once Rilla had driven off. "All right Ma Belle shall we make something fun in the kitchen?"

"Please!" Clara says jumping


I hope everyone is excited to see this continue!

Tina