This is part two in a continuing series about Violette Wakeland. Please refer to ACR archives for part I. kc

Despite resistance, in the summer of 1961 Violette and Ray began the construction of their dream house on the bluff. They were happy to be making progress on their vision to build a home beside Violette’s beloved Rock— a warm home where Ray could set up his pottery shop in the basement; a home where the grandchildren could visit and where all of nature would be embraced. They worked non-stop, far into the nights. As the weather turned colder their efforts intensified.

The work was grueling and exhausting. At every turn their progress was hampered by the abundance of large rocks but Violette showed her usual positive approach to life:

Mounds of rock from the excavation were piled here and there. As I viewed them day in and day out I began to envision a landscaping plan for the time when I finally lived out there. Landscaping became one of my consuming interests. I was completely at home in this setting of nature’s lovelies and made effort to enhance the effect. As I viewed the lichen-covered rocks I envisioned them with plantings of native plants growing in borders along the perimeters. Collecting shrubs and plants became another project.

The remains of Violette’s creative and lovely use of these rocks in the landscaping can still be seen on her property today.

Work on the house slowly progressed. Because of the slope of the land, they had dug out a hole in the mountainside for the basement’s restraining wall. The footings and walls for the basement were finished, and Ray was able to borrow a tractor to put fill dirt behind the wall. He had intended to add it gradually to let the dirt settle, but since the tractor was available for one day only he was forced to add the fill all at once.

That night there was a fierce storm that brought five inches of rain, and early the next morning when Ray went out to look over the situation he returned with tears in his eyes. The restraining wall was crumbling under pressure. Days later, after frames and supports were added to the wall, the concrete was poured. Suddenly one of the frames gave way, cement poured out and they were forced to rush in emergency supplies to make repairs. Ray almost collapsed from the urgency and pressure.

Ray’s health, never the best, deteriorated throughout the winter. His low physical condition, coupled with the subversive atmosphere, affected his emotions to the point of despondency. He had been afflicted with duodenal ulcers for many years and emotional stress aggravated the condition. With the demands of building and the constant persecution from the Assembly, he stayed in a state of severe ulcer flare-up.

One day we had to walk to the shop to stack lumber. On the way in we had to stop several times for him to relieve pain in his chest.

Winter came and the pottery shop was finished. Ray worked there during the day, joining Violette at home in town before dark. Inevitably the day came when Life gave Ray back to the Giver. On that day, Violette, alarmed that he wasn’t home, walked the miles over to the shop and called out to him. The bright lights greeted her, all seemed well, and as she approached the pottery shed she imagined that Ray was waiting for the kiln to come up to heat. Opening the door, she called his name out brightly.

The alliances that Violette and Ray had formed with some of the local artists, as well as the friends they had made at church, provided essential support for her now in her time of need. The Ramseys were special friends, and they brought Fa-Fa into her life at just the right moment.

Fa-Fa was a white German shepherd puppy, given to Violette to protect her and provide companionship for her now that she was alone. His devotion and attachment to her were obvious even in the beginning. This love and loyalty would save Violette’s life more than once in the ten years that Fa was by her side.

Following Ray’s burial, to add insult to injury, Assembly members stepped up their efforts to drive Violette out and claim her land.

Left alone to face the growing animosity of the townsfolk, the now-unrelieved burden of owning a prize piece of land and the greed it inspired, Violette struggled to regain her equilibrium.

Rather than force her to sell, their efforts strengthened her resolve: she would never sell to the Assembly. Violette sought the comfort of The Rock for answers to her many dilemmas.

Realizing that her dreams of an idyllic artist’s life with Ray on Sunset Bluff would not be realized, Violette once again took life by the horns and continued the construction of the dream house — with changes. The almost-completed basement that she and Ray had so arduously shored up would become her new home. Construction on the house resumed.

Since the building project was evidence of her permanency on the bluff, it aroused dismay among the Assembly. One day when the construction workers arrived at the site they found a steel post imbedded in concrete blocking the entrance to the roadway. A legal injunction against the Assembly protecting her right to ingress was in effect, so she called her lawyer to report this infraction. Orders from the Assembly president, Mr. Jacobs, mandated NO REMOVAL. Consequently, Violette boldly had a warrant served against the Assembly powers-that-be and again fought them in court to assure her rights and keep the road open to her building site.

Kant may have been right when he said, "Truth is the child of time; before long she shall appear to vindicate you," but living under the pall of unjust accusation takes its toll. Violette was beginning to crumble under the pressure.