Pearl Whitfield

The Storekeeper Pearl Whitfield

After his wife dies, Ralph Johnson loads the dog into the truck. Rusty and Ralph drive around for months, until they end up in a small town in the West where Ralph buys the mom-and-pop store. As he becomes immersed in the life of the town, his grief begins to heal. There is abundance of life in Campbell. Ralph and his wife never had children, and he is flummoxed and intrigued by a ragged and skinny four-year-old girl who appears, alone, on the steps of the store the first day. This is a deceptively simple story, from the coffee 'boys' and the Friday prayer group, to the events and conversations of small town life. But it is, like the best of country music songs, a story about all of our lives.