"Messenger"

by Alice Munro

 "Messenger" appeared as the last story in the collection  The View from Castle Rock (2006) which is Alice Munro's latest collection of short stories.
The book includes the following stories:

• Part One / No Advantages
  • "No Advantages"
  • "The View from Castle Rock"
  • "Illinois"
  • "The Wilds of Morris Township"
  • "Working for a Living"
• Part Two / Home
  • "Fathers"
  • "Lying Under the Apple Tree"
  • "Hired Girl"
  • "The Ticket"
  • "Home"
  • "What Do You Want to Know For?"
• Epilogue
  • "Messenger"

This is the story of the author travelling in the summer of 2004 looking for some traces of the life of William Laidlaw, her great-great-grandfather. She drove from Ontario to Chicago. When she started her journey, she found that the countryside had changed from what her father had told her. When he arrived, all that he found was that the house of his great-great-grand father was gone and the barns had been pulled down.  

When she was trying to find his grave, no Laidlaw was listed with those buried in the first cemeteries; she was very disappointed. She thought that everything was the same as 150 years ago. All she was looking for was a grave, or a memory. The only thing that was on her mind was: Unknown Cemetery.   

In a certain corner of Homer Township, only two stones were found. This two stones according to the list are the names of people who died in the year of 1837. This means that there was a cemetery in existence before his great-great-grand father's death.  

After not founding of his great-great-grandfather, he went to another cemetery in Blyth, in here laid the body of James who had been killed by the falling tree.  It was there where Mary Scott was buried. Mary was the lady who wrote the letter from Ettrick to lure William Laidlaw, because she wanted him to marry her. In Blyth he found information about his family, a live memory comes through his mind.