Looking back on the past year, some people may mingle shame and regret with the hope that the next year will be better. Eleanor H. Porter’s short story “The Long Road” acts as a reminder that, no matter the regrets, there is always time to change and make amends.
Jane Pendergast lives to take care of her father. She abandoned her dream of going to school in order to care for her siblings when their mother died. She now abandons her dreams of love to care for her father as he suffers with dementia.
Jane’s three siblings, Edgar, Mary, and Fred, don’t want to care for their father. So Jane alone is left to care for him, while “Edgar … [is] a successful business man in Boston. Mary [marries] a wealthy lawyer of the same city; and Fred [opens] a real estate office in a thriving Southern town.”
Year after year passes and still Jane remains steadfast and caring towards her father as he forgets more and more. Finally, after several years, their father dies, leaving Jane free but now alone.
The siblings now debate who should take Jane home with them, but none of them are keen on taking her. After going back and forth, Fred volunteers to take Jane.
Two months after Jane moves in with Fred, Edgar receives a letter from Fred saying that he is sending Jane to him. Fred and his wife can’t stand having Jane around anymore, so they send her to Edgar.
Edgar’s wife, Julia, condescendingly welcomes Jane, putting her into one of the children’s rooms. Jane quickly begins to see that she hasn’t come for a visit (as Fred made her believe), but is here to stay. Jane immediately feels like she is imposing upon everyone.
After living with them for almost six weeks, Jane makes her way to her sister Mary’s house. She feels like a burden on her family and hopes to find refuge with Mary. Mary consents, but says: “You—you may come a week from Saturday. … I have a reception and a dinner here the first of the week, and—you’d better stay away until after that.”
Repent and Rise
Two months after Jane comes to live with Mary, Belle, Mary’s daughter, and her fiancé, Will, happen to get a flat tire in Belton right in front of Jane’s old house. While Will goes to find a telephone, Belle visits with the old woman on the porch and hears the heroic tale of her Aunt Jane’s life.
Through this story, Porter demonstrates how mistakes build up over the years and how, at one point or another, shame finally catches up. Rather than wallowing in self-pity or remorse, her story encourages action and repentance.
Aldous Huxley puts it perfectly in “Brave New World”: “If you have behaved badly, repent, make what amends you can and address yourself to the task of behaving better next time. On no account brood over your wrongdoing. Rolling in the muck is not the best way of getting clean.”
Though it is easy to wallow in regret, it is never too late to repent. With this year coming to a close, let the new anthem that is sung into the new year be: “repent and rise.” Rise from the muck and look to the future with hope.
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