This is the story of Peter Blanchard, a French Canadian immigrant, and Mary Haley, an Irish American, who began their lifelong journey together in New Orleans in the 1850s. It is a story of their strength and resilience, of raising a family there through the hard times of the Civil War, and of later moving to Pascagoula, Mississippi, where they established businesses and prospered despite living through events that periodically devastated their community. It is also the story of the families and lives of four generations of their descendants.