Having survived the Irish famine, Mary Devine emigrated to America where she worked as a washerwoman for the next sixteen years. During this time she married and settled in Illinois with her husband who worked as a laborer on the railways. Soon after her second daughter was born word reached Mary that her husband had been killed and so with little or no income Mary set off on foot with her two daughters to New York before eventually scraping enough of money together to pay their fare back to Ireland where she lived out the remainder of her life. Many times we have heard of those who have emigrated but rarely do we hear about those who returned home. This is a story of struggle and self-belief but most of all it is a story of survival against the odds.