“The Long Walk Home with the Ceinture Fléchée: The Arrow Sash.” By Paula Grandpre Wood.

Independently published, June 2023. 316 pages. Hardcover: $24.00; Paperback: $20.00, Kindle: $9.75.

Independent publishing has gained in popularity over the last couple of decades, and the upside is that some very good books, which may not fit the needs of big-name publishers, do end up seeing the light of day. Not all independently published works are good – many show a lack of adequate editing – but happily, “The Long Walk Home with the Ceinture Flechee” belongs to the first category.

This book, by Paula Grandpre Wood, will appeal to a number of audiences. First, there are the people who love genealogical research in general, who see such searches as a very rewarding type of scavenger hunt. These will appreciate Grandpre Wood’s search for her ancestors by way of the family’s Ceinture Flechee, or Arrow Sash, which runs like a theme through the whole book.

The second group are those whose heritage is French Canadian, particularly if their families were among the thousands of Acadians who were forcibly deported from their homes in Canada between the years 1755 and 1763. They will likely feel the same pain and outrage that Grandpre Wood experienced when she discovered just what this chapter in history meant for her family.

The third group will appreciate the lengthy reminiscences from the “aunts” in the middle of the book – first-hand accounts, from four viewpoints, of what life was like for the Quebecois in the early years of the twentieth century. Reading this section of the book reminded me of one of my favorites when I was a child – the “Little House on the Prairie” series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. It is enlightening, here in the twenty-first century, to be reminded of a much different time – simpler, perhaps, but also much harder. It also brought to mind those things we take for granted now which were new (and sometimes frightening) then. The remembrances of the time the “aunts” saw the very first airplane fly over their farm are amusing to us; they had no idea quite what it was except that it made a great deal of noise and caused them to run as fast as they could for the house.

A very moving part of the book is Grandpre Wood’s account of her return to the Catholic Church after an absence of thirty-three years. Those who have a particular devotion to the Blessed Mother will appreciate (and likely resonate) with her relationship to Mary, and if the reader has ever made a pilgrimage to Medjugorje he or she will understand the profound influence this place had on her journey back to her faith.

Finally, if you have ever lived (or hiked) in Vermont, the final section about Grandpre Wood deciding to hike the Long Trail will sound quite familiar. Her interest in doing this trek began when she was nineteen, but at that time she couldn’t find anyone who wanted to hike it with her. Finally, at the age of sixty-three, her niece, Liv, said that it was a challenge that she wanted to undertake. “For some reason,” Grandpre Wood said, “this trail kept calling me, so when Liv mentioned it, I was in. If she was doing it, I would do it with her.” It was when she realized that the trail would be taking her to the Quebec border where her ancestors once lived that the hike took on a special significance. “I knew then,” she said, “that it wasn’t just a hike for me, but a pilgrimage…It would be me, separating myself from the world I was a part of and hoping for more quiet time with God.”

As it turned out, neither woman was able to complete the entire length of the Long Trail. Grandpre Wood was forced off near Rutland due to an injury to her knee. Though that part of her journey had ended, her pilgrimage has not and we are lucky she has chosen to share it with us.

Author bio:

Paula Grandpre Wood is an author, physical therapist, wife, and a person who heard the call of her ancestors.

Born in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, one day her family’s “Ceinture Fléchée” (arrow sash) began speaking to her heart, making her who God planned for her to be.

Grandpre Wood returned to the Catholic Church in 2010, after being away for 33 years. She was professed into the third order of secular Franciscans on May 13, 2023.