As our car approaches Seward, Alaska, clouds crowd the mountaintops. When we reach Resurrection Bay, they’re sagging low and heavy, like pregnant women ready to give birth. Certainly their water is breaking. Nonetheless, I call the kayaking company, to see if they’re planning to go through with the 3-hour guided paddle at 1:00. It’s 11:00, and they’re still not sure. They’ll decide by 12:30. The forecast calls for 3-to-5-foot waves, but often those forecasts come to nothing.

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When I was a TV reporter in Alaska, I traveled to Barrow, the northernmost outpost of America. I covered a story on the last sunset of 1990, and explored a few things Inupiat people do to deal with the long winter night. When my memoir, They Only Eat Their Husbands, comes out next year, it won’t include the whole story. I thought you might enjoy this tale of strong women…

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