The Leaky Raft

The Leaky Raft: A Village Raises a Child is a true story about a village; a time and place where the story of being human is unfolded before our very eyes in the lives of two boys, James and David. It’s a larger story of how a community (a village), an idyllic but real place in history through its many characters and events, shaped the lives of these two boys.

The Leaky Raft is a symbol of what holds us together so we don’t sink. The raft will always leak; representing the growing pains, the insecurities, and the innocence of childhood, while the solid cedar rails, any old plank, or even an old door held together with fence wire, represents the community, the support and care of the child. Each story recounts how the love and caring by the village, somehow metaphorically, will patch a hole in the raft. Will the leaky raft be free from leaks?

Hop on the many rafts that were built and see. Join these two boys, James and David, and a cadre of many friends on a tumultuous, scandalous, mischievous, and dare-devilish journey.

Hop on—it’s going to be quite a journey.

Jim Dalton was born in Ottawa in 1936. At the age of three, he moved to Deloro, Ontario with his brother David, age two.

The stories in this book, a long-awaited labour of love titled The Leaky Raft, take place between 1939 and 1952. In 1952 the family moved to St. Catharines, Ontario. After high school in Thorold, Ontario, Jim worked in the field of professional accounting from 1963 to 1984. In 1984, Jim returned to university: Brock, 1984 to 1987, and Queen’s Theological College, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, 1987 to 1990. Jim was ordained in the Hamilton Conference of the United Church of Canada. Jim has served in congregations in Ontario and Quebec from 1990 until today.

Jim is married to the Reverend Brenda S. Bell, lives in Montreal, has two children and one grandchild from a previous marriage, and celebrates with Brenda her two sons and three grandchildren.