Oprah and Gayle with the Voorhees family
Gayle and I are given shoes that feel like they're made for two left feet ("Your feet will form to them," a producer says) as well as our roles in the story. I'm the wife of a governor, and Gayle is my widowed sister; we're passing through the colony to get herbs to take back to our ill shipmates. In exchange for the goods and a place to lodge, we bear gifts—a huge ham, some sugar, and a wheel of cheese. We're to stay with John Voorhees (in real life, a carpet salesman); his wife, Michelle Rossi-Voorhees (a seamstress who runs her own business); their 11-year-old son, Giacomo; and their dog, Chloe. In 1628 the Voorhees represent a middle-class family who sailed here from England to create a new life.
