Kate's Light

Kate’s Light is based on the true story of Kate Moore, who served over 50 years as the lighthouse keeper on Black Rock Island in 19th Century Connecticut. A true heroine, she rescued over twenty shipwrecked souls from the sea.   We open in 1870. An elderly Kate pilots a rowboat into Long Island Sound in the aftermath of a storm. While retrieving the body of a drowned sailor, she discovers a young woman, Emily, barely alive and disguised in men’s clothing. Kate brings her back to the island, and nurses her back to health, all while continuing her tireless work maintaining the lighthouse and caring for her ailing father.   As Emily recovers, she and Kate bond over their shared defiance of societal expectations. Emily reveals that she fled an arranged marriage in Boston, longing to forge her own destiny as a doctor in New York. Kate, in turn, shares her own past through flashbacks, revealing how she came to be the lighthouse’s keeper and her burgeoning desire to do more for the victims of shipwrecks in the treacherous waters near her island.   This desire leads to Kate’s first rescue in 1831 – of Mary, a young Boston socialite.  While young Kate, with the help of her parents and three young brothers, nurses Mary back to life, bad weather and ice prevent travel to or from the island for several weeks. As Mary recovers, Kate begins to see in her something she has never had – a friend, and one so free-spirited and different from anyone Kate has ever known. For Mary, Kate is also a revelation – only 18 and a woman -- but tending a lighthouse, raising animals, keeping house and saving the lives of shipwreck victims.   Kate and Mary become inseparable, reading to each other by candlelight, spending nights in the lighthouse lantern room, sharing chores.  Mary reveals that her once wealthy parents have fallen on hard times. They are desperate for her to marry an eager, wealthy suitor. Mary feels duty bound to help her family but feels no love for her fiancée. In turn, Kate, duty bound to support her family (her father is no longer physically able to serve as the lighthouse keeper) and to protect lives as the lighthouse’s keeper, slowly realizes that there may be more to life than what she already has.   Kate and Mary realize that everything they had thought before about their own futures has have been upended by their shared experience.  While isolated on an ice-bound island, they can imagine a life free from the shackles of society. They fall in love.   Before they can plot out a life together, a break in the weather allows Kate’s father to get word to Mary’s parents that she has been rescued and is alive and well.  Kate becomes distraught that her time with Mary will be cut short. Mary counsels Kate that they should “not let fear cast out love.” They imagine an escape, but the impending arrival of Mary’s parents and other circumstances conspire to see Mary spirited away by her family and fiancée. As a parting gesture of thanks, Mary’s fiancée gives Kate five gold coins. Once they are gone, and angry Kate tosses the coins at her father. Kate’s mother later collects them and returns them to Kate. Kate resigns herself to her duties on the island and harbors a futile hope that Mary will return one day.   Kate’s tale of her first rescue concluded, the focus shifts back to 1870 where Emily’s plans to go to New York and become a doctor are placed in jeopardy. Kate devises a means for Emily’s safe passage. As Emily is about to leave, and in desperate need of money, Kate gifts her the five gold coins.   Mary, in turn gifts Kate with a piece of advice her grandmother once shared: “do not let fear cast out love.” Kate suspects that Mary was Emily’s grandmother, but keeps this to herself. All that matters is that Emily is sent on her way in time to realize her dreams.   Kate’s Light is a poignant tale of courage, sacrifice, and the enduring power of choice. It honors the life of a remarkable woman who defied convention, saved lives, and kept the light burning for those lost at sea.