To say thank you sometimes can feel rote, reflexive. To have an opportunity to express deep gratitude to a complete stranger did not feel rote or reflexive today. This woman’s roses, their scent perfuming the very warm air, had given a good friend of mine pleasure from the distance of a photograph. Overcoming my shyness, I told her of my friends appreciation and thanked her.
“No duty is more urgent than that of returning thanks.”
~ James Allen
Important Women
Seven year old Abby Richardson was not sure where her grandmother was. At home with grandpa James? Getting off the school bus, she decided to go to the Estate kitchen. Maybe she was with Cook. Her mother wouldn’t get home until suppertime. She was going to be at school late for parents’ meetings. A shy, quiet girl, she opened the kitchen door and tiptoed in. “Cook?” Her little voice barely loud enough to be heard, but Cook had expected her. “It’s ok, Abby. Come in and get some cookies. Just baked them this afternoon. What’s that you’ve got there? Did you make this today?” Abby handed her the poster that she had made for her grandmother. “It’s not very good, but teacher wanted us to make a poster about the women we think are important to us.” Cook looked at it for a long time. “That’s a lot of flowers, Abby. I can guess who some of them are but I’m not sure about the other ones.” Abby grinned. “Grandma is one, Mom is one……you guessed those didn’t you.” She was almost jumping up and down. Cook wrinkled her forehead, put her hand on her chin and thought hard. “Miss Em is one……..and….” she looked at the little girl for a sign that she was right. When Abby nodded, her grin getting wider, and her jump a little bigger, Cook knew she was on the right track. “That’s three important women, but there’s still three flowers. Hmmm…..Miss Dez? Can’t be. You don’t see her very often.” Abby giggled. “Not very much, but she’s so much fun! And she lets me help her in the orchard. I get to eat apples and Ben is too busy riding his bike.”
Cook poured herself a cup of tea, got Abby her glass of milk and they sat down to study the poster again. Abby really wanted Cook to guess the last two. “Who else, Cook?” She bit down on her cookie. Taking a quick sip of tea, Cook ticked off the list of women on her fingers. “Your teacher?” Abby squirmed in her seat, laughed and shook her head. “She’s important but not as much as ……..” She stopped and clapped her hand over her mouth. Cook had been teasing Abby, but suddenly realized she was one of the flowers. “Oh, Abby, you don’t mean me do you?” Cook didn’t tear up often, but she reached in her apron for a tissue. Dabbing at her eyes and putting the tissue away, she hugged her friend’s granddaughter. She wanted this child to tell her why she was included, but instead asked about the little blossom sheltered by the bigger flowers. “That’s me Cook! Can’t you tell? Everyone is big people and I’m just little right now. But I want to be like all of you because you are all kind to me and Ben and to everyone.’ She hesitated and took another cookie. “And you’re always here, especially when I need you.” She got up and hugged Cook and whispered “And you make good cookies.”
~~~~~
Abby didn’t know it but in her young life, she had watched and spent time with all of these women. She had experienced life with her mother who taught them at home and then saw her at school in her role as teacher. Most often, calm and smiling, but Abby had seen her vulnerable and crying. She had watched her grandmother, soft and kind and then at work, organized and assertive. Miss Dez and Miss Em, she saw from the distance of a shy child. How they treated each other and the people at the Estate. Always with kindness. Miss Dez was more patient than Miss Em, but Abby let that pass. And Cook. She had a special place in that little girl’s heart. It was like having an aunt or another grandma. When her own grandma wasn’t there, Cook was.
She really did want to be like all of them. Deep inside she knew she also wanted to be herself.
“She does not know what the future holds,
but she is grateful for slow and steady growth.”
~ Morgan Harper Nichols
Kya wasn’t always alone in the marsh. She hadn’t always been called the Marsh Girl. There had been family times, her mother painting, cooking and laughing, her brothers and sisters playing in the surf. One by one they all left her except her father, an abusive man who suffered from war wounds. He drank too much and became violent but did have unpredictable spells of sobriety. Kya started to be completely alone when he disappeared for weeks on end. A little girl, she scrounged in the marsh, dug mussels on the beach and barely survived. But she did.
The first person to leave was her mother. Kya was only six years old. It wasn’t until this child was an adult did she understand. One brother, Jodie, stood by her the longest, teaching her the ways of the marsh and about the birds. On one of his rare times of sobriety, her father taught her more about the marsh. He was even kind, almost good to her. When she was ten years old, he too disappeared. She kept away from town, afraid of people, hiding in the ferns and trees when the truant officer came for her. Desperate for food, she dug mussels and took them to the only man she knew and trusted. Jumpin’ always took whatever she brought, gave her money. He and his wife Mabel cared for her from a distance, knowing that she was as shy as a deer in the marsh.
Kya, at that young age, was curious about Tate, a boy from the town who often fished in the marsh. Their first communication was by bird feathers and tokens. He left her a note one time, but being unable to read, she did speak to him. Tate taught her to read. A relationship began to blossom, until he went to college. He did come to see her as often as possible but slowly he left her too. Growing into womanhood, another boy she had seen since a girl came into her life. But Chase Andrews merely wanted to be ‘the first’. Leading a double life, in town a hero; in the marsh with Kya, a pseudo-gentle lover.
When the book opens, his lifeless body is found at the base of an old fire tower by two boys who recognized him. Speeding to the sheriff, a murder investigation was opened, followed by a trial. The sheriff became suspicious when there were no footprints, no fingerprints and one bit of red fluff on the victims jacket. The remainder of the story is a trial in a town already prejudiced against ‘the Marsh Girl’. No spoiler alert! There are plenty of suspects and few pieces of real evidence. Only one person ever knew the outcome.
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens brought to mind, the tone and depth of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. This novel will be a book that I will reread. Probably more than once. I have yet to see the movie, but I will be seeking it out!
“Kya laid her hand upon the breathing, wet earth,
and the marsh became her mother.”
~ Where the Crawdads Sing
Title: Where the Crawdads Sing
Author: Delia Owens
Copyright: 2018
Publisher: G.P.Putnam’s Sons
Type: Novel
Format: Paperback
ISBN-Paperback - 9780735219106m
ISBN-Hardback - 9780735219090
LCCN:2018010775
As the title suggests, this movie is a group of women talking. Not the chatter of idle gossip or the most recent fashions, but the serious debate about whether ‘to do nothing, to stay and fight or to leave’. Based on true events of horrendous serial and ongoing rape and domestic abuse in a Mennonite colony, the women of the colony knew they had to do something, or stay quiet. Throughout the movie, there were flashback scenes of the effects of the rapes and abuse. Sensitive to the audience, the actual violent acts were not part of the filming. Drugged, they never knew who or when they would be assaulted. They were given many reasons why they woke up with bruises, became infected or pregnant. Reasons of dreaming, making things up, ghosts or Satan were given for the behaviour of the men of the colony. After one such attack, one of the girls saw the face of her abuser, reported it to the colony elders. The abuser named the others and they were taken to jail - for their own protection. At least one woman was angry enough to attack one of them.
The women discussed how they had never asked for any kind of help at all from the men. This prompted one of the few scenes of levity in the movie when they realized that the first thing that they would ever ask of the men would be for the men to leave the colony. There were many scenes of happy children playing in the cornfields surrounding the colony.
The setting was the loft of the barn on the colony’s land. One man only was included in their deliberations: the school teacher who was there only to take the minutes of their meeting. Given the content of the movie, the gray/green/brown filter used in the cinematography was very effective in telling this disturbing and hopeful story. We do not know the outcome for the abusers, but the final scene is of a long line of carriages with children, women and belongings leaving the colony.
“Time will heal. Our freedom and safety are the ultimate goals,
and it is men who prevent us from achieving those goals.”
~ Women Talking
Directed by: Sarah Polley
Based on the novel: Women Talking by Miriam Toews
Writing Credits: Sarah Polley (screenplay by) and
Miriam Toews (screenplay by)
Abbreviated Cast:
Rooney Mara - Ona
Judith Ivey - Agata
Emily Mitchell - Miep
Kate Hallet - Autje
Liv McNeil - Neitje
Claire Foy - Salom
Sheila McCarthy - Greta
Jessie Buckley - Mariche
Michelle McLeod - Mejal
Kira Guloien - Anna
Shayla Brown - Helena
Frances McDormand - Scarface Janz
Vivien Endicott Douglas - Clara
Ben Whishaw - August
August Winter - Melvin
Evie Stone moved from the role of servant girl at the Chawton Great House to Cambridge. She expected more when her term at Cambridge was completed. However, it was not to be.
In February of last year, The Jane Austen Society, the first book by Natalie Jenner, was our book club’s choice for that month. This is where ‘quiet and unassuming’ Evie Stone is introduced. It is not necessary to read The Jane Austen Society to enjoy Bloomsbury Girls. The author makes reference throughout as some of the same characters show up in Bloomsbury Girls; characters that helped Evie move forward in her life.
Natalie Jenner has brought Evie Stone to us in this second novel, Bloomsbury Girls. Evie’s quiet and determined care for all books, but especially rare books, brought her to the Bloomsbury Books, a book shop with a centuries old pedigree in post-war London. Herbert Dutton, the general manager, established a strict list of fifty one workplace rules and expects them followed without question. The employees are two women, Vivien and Grace; and four men, Frank Allen, Alec McDonough, Master Mariner Simon Scott and Ashwin Ramaswamy.
Vivien, manages the floor while Grace is Mr. Dutton’s very dutiful secretary. They are also expected to make tea four times in the work day. Both women are concerned and annoyed by the lack of women authors in the shop. Evie shares their concern. Each of the men has their own areas of work. Bloomsbury Books is very slowly losing its grip as a notable book seller as Mr. Dutton does not wish to upgrade or change. The balance of power in the shop changes the day that Mr. Dutton is taken ill and must be off for a time at the advise of his doctor. When Evie gets hired, the female to male ratio improves. The potential sale of the bookshop to Herbert and Frank becomes the twist in the story. High society, an American benefactor and the founders of The Jane Austen Society are involved.
Natalie Jenner gives us ordinary women and men at a time of great societal imbalance. The women, especially, struggle to gain a more solid footing at Bloomsbury Books. An enjoyable and easy read.
“Rule No. 31
Staff shall treat each other with pleasantness at all times.”
~ Bloomsbury Girls
Title: The Bloomsbury Girls
Author: Natalie Jenner
Copyright: 2022
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press, an imprint of St. Martin’s Publishing Group
Type: Novel
Format: Soft Cover
ISBN - 9781250283221 (Canada & international (sold outside the U.S.))
ISBN - 9781250276704 (ebook)
The cholera outbreak in London in 1827 was considered ended when, three months later, there was another outbreak. Dr. Croft, a noted physician, had made many calls to his patients. A last call to the Beady household found three people dead and one eight year old child still alive. The doctor picked her up, despite possible contamination, and took her home to his housekeeper, Mrs. Phipps. He was scolded roundly for bringing contamination to the house. They nursed little Eleanor Beady back to health.
Grisly, humorous, women’s issues and the state of health care in the late 1800s. Parented by Dr. Horace Croft, a brilliant and very distracted physician, and Mrs. Phipps, his stern housekeeper, Eleanor (Nora) grew up to assist Dr. Croft in his many experiments on cadavers. She learned surgical techniques, practicing on cadavers. She studied all the books and papers that she could lay her hands on. She learned to love the search for answers. Answers to the many questions about the workings human body.
Dr. Croft had a professional enemy in one Dr. Vickery. They not only disagreed but they disliked each other intensely. Dr. Daniel Gibson, a young doctor, came to work and live with Dr. Croft taking very a cherished spot with the great man. Here the story also turns to the place of women in the 1840’s. Dr. Gibson disapproved of Nora and her work in the surgery and her lack of refinement. More than just socially unacceptable, some of the surgical work she did was illegal as she was not a licensed physician. London’s Royal College did not admit women. The nature of her work wth Dr. Croft had to be kept secret, especially from Dr. Vickery. Dr. Harry Trimble, a friend and colleague of Dr. Gibson’s became a wild card in this scenario of learning, medicine, deception and romance.
Eleanor (Nora) had only one year of finishing school. Her socialization involved taking care of patients and keeping Dr. Croft’s surgery spotlessly clean. Rather than embroidery, her stitches were sutures. As the story progresses, Nora’s status as an illegal practitioner of medicine - and a woman at that! - is finally exposed. It was then that Nora actually stood up for herself. The results were….. to tell you more would not be fair.
Well researched, the novel included the names of famous women of medicine and nursing. I loved this book, it’s a keeper! Good character development - I liked them all, except of course, Dr. Vickery who was just not likeable. The end left me wanting more. Gladly there is a sequel in the offing, but no publishing date as yet.
“Ears ringing, Nora rose to her feet, her voice floundering
under a wave of noise from the crowd.”
~ Nora, The Girl in His Shadow
Title: The Girl in His Shadow
Author: Audrey Blake (creative alter-ego of Jaima Fixen and Regina Sirois)
Copyright: 2021 by Jaima Fixen and Regina Sirois (co-authors)
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark. An imprint of Sourcebooks
Type: Novel
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781728228723
ISBN: 9781980091479 (audiobook)
Ebook: 9781728228730
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There were pictures
Thudding sounds
buildings frayed like old, worn shirts
an old woman, gray hair streaming,
sat on a bench, a ragged quilt around her
Walking home
from the grocery store
traffic and bird sounds stalled
this old woman, gray hair tucked in,
wore bright colours and a warm coat
The Other
seemed far away and
sadness and gratitude mixes
their men, women and children dying.
our men, women and children live.
“We are the other of the other.”
~ Marco Aurelio
Inspired by a photo of a Ukrainian woman in the war zone posted on CBC
I can’t be someone I am not.
I have tried.
Can’t get past ‘I am who I am’.
I can’t be rich and famous ~
haven’t really tried that.
But then I’ve never wanted to be famous.
I can’t be the world’s most powerful woman ~ and
I've never wanted the responsibility
I am in awe of those in powerful positions.
I can’t have everything I want ~
thoughts that drift through time to time.
I do have some things I want and everything I need.
“We are our choices.”
~ Jean-Paul Sartre
If You’re Not There
“Stop the car for a moment, Giles. Oh, Dez, isn’t it so beautiful!” Emelina was beaming. “I’m so glad you’ll be staying with us while you recover.” Like it or not, the car accident had brought a blessing in disguise to the sisters. Dez was not as injured as her poor Old Faithful. She was black, blue and stiff. It would take some time and patience to get moving again, but her old car was toast. She was glad that they were stopping. The view was beautiful, but it wasn’t the view she was interested in. Giles, the Estate chauffeur, had taken them on a scenic route along the ocean. It was much longer than the short ride to the Estate. Thankfully, Giles had pulled into an overlook just as Dez was squirming trying to find a comfortable place. The more time Dez was in the car, the more cramped she was becoming. “Can I help you, Dez? There’s some benches over there.” Emelina pointed to benches set back from the cliff edge. “No, Em, I’m fine. I’ll just take my time. You go ahead and get your pictures. I know you want to.” Her sister was out of the car, her cell phone out and taking pictures, always with an eye on Dez. Giles called out to her “Miss Em I’ll help your sister out. You just be careful that you don’t get too close to the edge.”
“Here, Miss Dez, let me help.” Giles had come around the car and opened her door. Dez grimaced as she turned to get her feet on the ground. She gripped both his extended arms and pulled herself forward. “Damn, Giles. I hurt all over. It was ok when I was just getting out of bed and walking across the room. But this!” Giles could’t help but laugh. “Take it easy, Miss Dez. There’s no rush. Just take a deep breath before you try again. Do you want the crutches? I’ll get them from the trunk while you stretch out your legs. Don’t try to stand up on your own.”
“I won’t, Giles. I’d just fall over and you’d have to pick me up.” Dez laughed stiffly. Slowly she stretched her legs out in front of her. She took a deep breath of the cool moist ocean air and all the stuffy hospital air whooshed out of her.
After an hour, Giles helped Dez hobble back to the car. “Em, let’s go. I really need to lie down and we’ve still got several kilometres to go.” Emelina had taken her photos and joined her sister on the bench. They were quiet, just looking out over the water. “I’m so glad you are alive, Dez. I don’t know what I would have done if…………..” Emelina’s words were stuck in her throat, tears filled her eyes. “Em, I’m ok. It’s taken us a long time to get here. Just about losing my life brought so much home to me. Having you come every day has been incredible. We don’t have mom and dad but we do have each other. It will stay that way.” Their hands entwined, she squeezed her sister’s hand tightly.
~~~~~
“How long will I be hobbling around, Giles? You’re going to have to come out here every day all day to be my right arm. Do you think Melanie will mind?” Dez laughed carefully, her ribs still sore. The three had arrived at the Estate after the long drive from the ocean overlook. For Dez, it felt longer than it really was. Giles parked the car parallel to the back steps. “Just let me help you out, Miss Dez. Will you be able to manage the steps all right?” Opening the car door for her, he watched painfully, as she slowly maneuvered herself out of the car. “Just get my crutches, Giles and stand by. The physio taught me how to take stairs. The few steps up to the porch should be all right.” Dez was a tall woman, not exactly a light weight and quite agile when she was well. It was difficult to see her halting and slow.
The two women, looking almost like sisters themselves, made a last look around the kitchen. Everything was ready. Plates, cups and sandwiches, kettle on to boil, fresh coffee made. “Martha, she might not want anything to eat. She might want just to go to bed. It’s been a long day for her.”
Martha nodded her head, her brow wrinkled in a frown. Going to the back door, she said “Well then, we'll just put everything away and pop her into bed, won't we?” She opened the back door. “Come on, Elizabeth.” Cook joined her friend to look outside. “Martha, come. It's Giles. And he has the sisters! Is everything ready?”
“You can't think how I depend on you and
when you're not there the colour goes out of my life.”
~ Virginia Woolf
My thoughts today are about story spaces and the stories that we fail to tell ourselves. After all, we are in the midst of our own stories. What or where is the story space for those of us that live alone? I suppose it could be said that anytime anyone is listening to the radio, TV or any screened metallic voice, stories infuse the air around us. Little difference from a group of friends meeting around a table in a coffee shop, or just a husband and wife at their kitchen table. But I am specifically interested, quite selfishly I suppose, in those of us that live alone. When I turn the radio or the TV on, it is often to hear the sound of another human voice. (Cats have a very limited vocabulary and I’ve never really understood feline linguistics.) Today, I listened to and watched a news story about the women in Afghanistan being left behind by the international community. Women fearing for their very lives, their freedom and their futures. Relief is not on their horizon.
There were three of us at this electronic kitchen table. Myself, the news reporter and a young Afghan woman residing in Norway. The news anchor and the Afghan woman were interviewer and interviewee. I was the shy quiet person, sipping coffee and remaining silent outside the story space ~ invisible to the others, behind the screens and within my home’s privacy. Such outside world stories connects me to a greater world that filters into my singularity like the light rain on my windowpane. I have reminded myself that I do not have to live in fear.
“We are like islands in the sea,
separate on the surface but connected in the deep,”
~ William James
England, 1862. Charlotte Harding and Harriet Baldwin, sisters, were on the edges of British society. Harriet, the older sister is married to the Honourable Charles Baldwin, MP a man of means who is vying for a greater position in the British Parliament. Charlotte is twenty one, unmarried and lives with them, taken in by her brother-in-law when her parents died. The most recent marriage choice for her, an unpleasant man, is key to aiding Charles in his bid for position. This is a time when women were no more than chattel, the British Empire was advancing their colonization into Canada with the attendant issues of racism, small pox and class divisions. Leslie Howard in her first novel The Brideship Wife, takes Charlotte and Harriet out of England aboard the Tynemouth, one of four ships, that became known as a bride ship. This is one of the historical details in Leslie Howard’s novel. At this time of the gold rush, the men that worked the claims were clamouring for wives. Some were impoverished and still panning for gold, while others ‘struck it rich’ either spending their new found wealth or using it to develop their ‘free’ parcels of land. There was little concern about the pasts of the women that arrived on Victoria’s shores. Charlotte, and her sister Harriet, were essentially banished from England by Harriet’s husband. On the ship, Charlotte showed compassion for those on the lower decks. Men in dreadful working conditions to man the ship; women confined to the lower decks by the Reverend and Mrs. Burke bringing religion to this new land. Shipboard romance is another part of Charlotte’s story. But she was determined not to fall into the role of the good wife again.
In reality, bride ships were the result of the Columbia’s Emigration Society’s initiative to bring women to aid in populating the colonies. The Brideship Wife was, in turn, strait laced and lively, as the women were shunted from their lives in England on the three month sea voyage to their new, and hopefully better, lives. Some did marry and raise children, some did not. In general they did find very different lives outside of some of the constraints of English society. This novel is a fast and easy read, despite the details packed within its pages. My only concern was that there seemed almost implausible jumps from one location to another. Possibly my own issue.
All in all, I found The Brideship Wife to be a very enjoyable read.
“After all I’d been doing to salvage my reputation, I was
taking a risk, but I had no other choice.”- Charlotte Harding
~ Leslie Howard, The Brideship Wife
Title: The Brideship Wife
Author: Leslie Howard (raised in Penticton, B.C.; avid interest in her province.
Copyright: 2020
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Canada
Type: Novel
Format: Soft Cover
ISBN - 978-1-5082-5935-0
ISBN - 978-1-5082-5936-7 (ebook)
It was a pleasure to meet Suzy Krause, author of Sorry I Missed You, at our book club meeting over Zoom this evening. The first half of our gathering was listening to Suzy Krause answer our questions. She discussed her writing practice, the development of Sorry I Missed You and the character development for her novel.
Sorry I Missed You, set in Regina, is the development of the sometimes tumultuous, or just hilarious, relationships between three women - Maude in her 70’s and a Regina native, 19 year old Mackenzie from small town Saskatchewan and Sunna, who had just been transferred from Toronto. Each of the women had secrets that were slowly revealed throughout the book. They had each moved into separate and newly renovated apartments in an old house rumoured to have ghosts in the attic. Owned by Larry, a punk music aficionado of days gone by, had inherited the house from his aunt and was bound by convoluted terms in her will that prevented him from living in it. A torn and unaddressed letter is the hook that draws out the women’s secrets, accompanied by ghosts in the attic, a bomb threat downtown and odd characters that seemed out of place, were woven skillfully in this quirky sto.ry. A twist at the end reveals the deepest secret of all.
“The ghost isn’t the person; it’s the feelings attached to the person.”
~ Suzy Krause Sorry I Missed You
Author: Suzy Krause
Copyright: 2020
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing, Seattle
Type: Novel
Format: Fiction
ISBN - 13:9781542010207
ISBN - 10:1542010209
