Shattered Dreams - My Life As A Polygamist's Wife (Hardcover)

Irene Spencer believed God told her she must marry her brother-in-law Verlan LeBaron, and become his second wife. Irene did as she felt God commanded, and when the government raided the fundamentalist, polygamous Mormon village of Short Creek, Arizona, where she lived with Verlan, she and her family fled to Verlan's brothers ranch. The years in the Mexican desert with Verlan's six brothers, his mentally ill sister, and numerous wives and children were unbelievably hard. Irene lived in broken down adobe buildings, with no running water. An outdoor toilet, old tire treads for door hinges, dim oil lamps, and recycled old clothes, served as her only material possessions. It's hard to tell which is more devastating in this memoir: the strains of husband-sharing with -- ultimately -- nine other wives, or the unremitting poverty that came with maintaining so many households and 56 children. This dramatic story reveals how far religion can be stretched and abused, and how one woman and her children found their way out and into truth and redemption.