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“The Corner Lot” was inspired by a Great Depression era story and a lecture by the American author and philosopher Neil Postma given at the First Baptist Church in Vancouver, BC in 2000. The narrative begins with a chance meeting on an Amsterdam dock in 1873 between two young men—one a Catholic from southern Holland and the other a Mennonite leaving his family on the doorstep of Russia. Their remarkable and enduring friendship led them through the post-Civil War South, across the great southern deserts, and up into the Central Valley of California, where they established a successful farm on an arid, rock-strewn property just east of the newly incorporated city of Bakersfield.
Three generations later, Rachel, the great-granddaughter of both men, collaborates with her mother, Rosalie, to document the family’s story. Rosalie’s intimate knowledge of the events and rumors surrounding the loss of their homestead during the Great Depression, the purchase of a small unowned corner of their land, and her determined efforts behind the scenes are all integral to the narrative. “The Corner Lot” begins with Rachel’s discovery of an old English legend linked to her Swedish surname and follows the events leading to the eventual redemption of the family fortune.
Neal De Geus brings this rich family saga to life, weaving together themes of friendship, perseverance, and legacy. His own experiences growing up on a rented farm in British Columbia, where he enjoyed fishing and paddling along the shoreline, add authenticity to the narrative. His adventures flying small airplanes over the wilderness of Alaska and his lifelong passion for aviation and sailing further enrich the story’s backdrop.
Join Neal De Geus on this remarkable journey through history, adventure, and family heritage in “The Corner Lot,” a novel that will captivate readers with its vivid storytelling and unforgettable characters.
This is the story of two families becoming inextricably drawn together into one, as they scraped together a life on the arid lower central valley of California just east of Bakersfield, and on the nearby foothills of the rugged Sierra Nevada Mountains. What threatened to break that bond in such a public way was overcome by the efforts of a single person who carried the burden of a secret, and my mother whose naiveté and fierce determination knew no bounds.