Tom Evans and Ruth

The Narrow Road to the Deep North

This flow follows Tom Evans’s unspoken wartime pain, his brief intimacy with Ruth, and the belated revelation of their son Frank.

increasing

Bearing strength in each event

decreasing

The Soldier Returns The Soldier Returns from "The Narrow Road to the Deep North". A Brother Comes Home Tears at the Station Young Dorrigo Evans sees Tom return from war and burst into tears.

The Soldier Returns from "The Narrow Road to the Deep North". A Brother Comes Home Tears at the Station Young Dorrigo Evans sees Tom return from war and burst into tears.

A Brother Comes Home Tears at the Station Young Dorrigo Evans sees Tom return from war and burst into tears. The scene becomes one of the few early examples of a grown man’s grief that he can remember. A Family Marked by War Tom’s experience remains largely unspoken. Its effects later emerge through his connection with Ruth and his delayed account of the war.

Ruth’s Comfort Ruth’s Comfort from "The Narrow Road to the Deep North". A Moment of Refuge A Private Breakdown Tom Evans visits Ruth, then the wife of Jackie Maguire.

Ruth’s Comfort from "The Narrow Road to the Deep North". A Moment of Refuge A Private Breakdown Tom Evans visits Ruth, then the wife of Jackie Maguire.

A Moment of Refuge A Private Breakdown Tom Evans visits Ruth, then the wife of Jackie Maguire. He begins to speak about what he has seen during the war and becomes unable to continue. A Human Response Ruth holds him like a child. The encounter is intimate but not the affair Dorrigo once imagined when he saw them together.

A Hidden Child A Hidden Child from "The Narrow Road to the Deep North". A Secret Birth Tom’s Son Ruth gives birth to Tom’s child while Jackie Maguire is away. The baby is sent to Hobart and raised by another family.

A Hidden Child from "The Narrow Road to the Deep North". A Secret Birth Tom’s Son Ruth gives birth to Tom’s child while Jackie Maguire is away. The baby is sent to Hobart and raised by another family.

A Secret Birth Tom’s Son Ruth gives birth to Tom’s child while Jackie Maguire is away. The baby is sent to Hobart and raised by another family. Silence as Protection Tom and Ruth do not claim the child, fearing the harm and upheaval that discovery could bring to the families involved. Their choice preserves a life but leaves Tom without a relationship with his son.

Frank’s Death Frank’s Death from "The Narrow Road to the Deep North". A Son Lost Unseen A Name Reaches Tom Tom Evans learns that the child was raised as Frank Gardiner.

Frank’s Death from "The Narrow Road to the Deep North". A Son Lost Unseen A Name Reaches Tom Tom Evans learns that the child was raised as Frank Gardiner.

A Son Lost Unseen A Name Reaches Tom Tom Evans learns that the child was raised as Frank Gardiner. Frank dies as a POW during the war, in a camp much like those in which Dorrigo serves. Grief Without History Tom has never met his only son. The news links the family’s concealed past to the distant deaths of the railway prisoners.

The Revelation to Dorrigo The Revelation to Dorrigo from "The Narrow Road to the Deep North". A Truth at the Bedside A Belated Confession Tom Evans tells Dorrigo Evans that Ruth’s child was his son.

The Revelation to Dorrigo from "The Narrow Road to the Deep North". A Truth at the Bedside A Belated Confession Tom Evans tells Dorrigo Evans that Ruth’s child was his son.

A Truth at the Bedside A Belated Confession Tom Evans tells Dorrigo Evans that Ruth’s child was his son. The revelation changes Dorrigo’s understanding of Tom and of the family’s past. What Cannot Be Repaired Tom’s confession comes too late to meet Frank or alter his fate. The brothers’ intimacy remains, but it now contains a grief neither can undo.

After Tom returns from the First World War

Around 1920, in Cleveland after Tom’s war service

July 1920, when Ruth gives birth in Launceston

During the Second World War, before Tom reveals the story

In 1967, during Tom’s final illness in Sydney