Stories. They come from many places, and sometimes the least likely and most unexpected inspirations. In Mary Ellen Cortellini’s case, she’s uncovered a tale that has been concealed behind the gates of a local Navy Base in an Army-built Victorian home overlooking the Pacific Ocean. She was so inspired that the tale is now a book and a screenplay, and she is shopping the movie rights.
The story is called Sacred Trust. Originally created as a screenplay, Sacred Trust is a grand Army/Navy love story, past and present, based on actual events.
Officers’ Row.
Cortellini’s latest book takes readers back to the bygone era of Army glory in Coronado and Point Loma at the turn of the 20th century. The book chronicles her journey as a local Navy Captain’s wife who transforms her historical research into a film version of the tale she uncovered while living in the 100-year-old military quarters on Point Loma.
The author leads readers through the story by incorporating dialogue from the screenplay to bring historical figures back to life a century later. It seamlessly integrates a historic romance from the past and a modern-day war story.
“The Crimson Rambler,” circa 1908, by artist Philip Leslie Hale.
The protagonist is Alle Brighton, a young Army wife who discovers a tale of love and heroism in a 100-year-old journal of forgotten memoirs. The characters are interwoven throughout the extremely visual social events that took place in San Diego a century ago. The narrative highlights the beauty, elegance, and military pageantry of a great city during a historic time.
The setting overlooks San Diego Bay, Coronado, and the Pacific Ocean. Men in uniform accompany ladies to formal balls at the opulent Hotel del Coronado. There are yachting excursions to carnivals on Coronado, picnics at the Point Loma lighthouse, fireworks over Glorietta Bay and Friday night hops at the new barracks. Then, in an instant, the resonance of terror, and one of the deadliest peacetime disasters in the history of the U.S. Navy – the 1905 explosion of the USS Bennington.
Fort Rosecrans.
Sacred Trust brings the first occupants of Officers’ Row back to life during the heyday of the former Army post of Fort Rosecrans, now the Naval Submarine Base on Point Loma. It also highlights their little-known Army successors after the events of 9/11. The two worlds unite. It is a continuum of flashbacks connecting the past with the present from the perspective of two military spouses.
Mary Ellen Cortellini graduated in 1980 from the College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts. She is a 27-year “career” Navy wife. In 2007 a Monument to Fort Rosecrans Soldiers, past and present, was dedicated in San Diego based on the research Cortellini had undertaken as a resident of the former post. This book is the third in the author’s series published by Merriam Press based on San Diego’s rich military history.
Cobblestone Point, Ballast Point Lighthouse, at the entrance to San Diego Bay.
The author’s previous books Officers’ Row 1904, Kneedler: Prominent Army Officer and Beloved Coronado Physician, and Soldiers of the 710th Ordnance Company (EOD) 2002-2007 provided the foundation to develop the fictional narrative in Sacred Trust.
Sacred Trust is currently available in the store, “Est. 1888,” at the Hotel del Coronado. For more information, or to purchase the book, visit http://www.merriam-press.com.
“Summer,” 1909, by Frank W. Benson.
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