Price: $29.95
Page Count: 128
Publication Date: December 2022
ISBN: 978-1-77258-410-3
“Excellent writing, varied styles including prose, prose poetry, and poetry. Deeply
authentic voices of the writers. (There are) examples of the resolution of issues raised
in early relationships and examples of a growth of understanding of the issues. Pointing
to paradoxical experiencing of parenting and being parented, (there is) a sophistocated,
thoughtful description of some of the experiences of being mothered and being a
mother.”
- Juanna Clarke, Professor Emeritus, Dept of Sociology and Anthropology, Wilfred Laurier
University
“The title is very evocative and each contribution echoes and builds on the idea of the
mother/daughter relationship both as a load, and as a lens through which the past and
the daughters place in it can be viewed. The authors provide interesting insights into
their subject, and although this is not an academic text, together the contributions
problematise the concept of motherhood and force a re-evaluation of motherhood as
universal and value-free.”
- Suzanne Scafe, Visiting Professor, Literature in English, University of Brighton, U.K.
Introduction 7
1. Nancy Garrow 9
Rosalind 10
Sylvia 17
2. Jennifer Walcott 21
Hyacinth 22
Finding Forgiveness 29
3. Melanie Faye 33
Snake – A Dream 34
Eden – A South African Childhood 36
Racism – My Country’s, My Mother’s and My Own 39
Father – The Storm Rolls In 43
Mother – From Anger to Forgiveness 45
4. Brenda M. Doyle 51
Honouring My Mother 52
Parents and Parenting 61
5. Kathy Honickman 73
Maybe I Shouldn’t Be Telling You This 74
All She Was and Ever Will Be 84
6. Ellen O’Donnell Walters 103
The Routine 104
Island Mother 105
Kitchen Doors 111
Grandmother 116
Lifelines 117
Story Time 122
Acknowledgements 123
Nancy Garrow
Nancy came to writing late in life after pondering the memories of almost seven decades of living, including many triumphs and traumas.
Now with a grown family and six grandchildren and the time to enjoy retirement, she finds satisfaction and healing in sharing her stories.
Jennifer Walcott
Jennifer Walcott, a retired teacher of English in Toronto started writing poetry as a child in Jamaica and has maintained her love of writing since then. Her verses are published in Calling Cards: New Poetry from Caribbean/Canadian Women, Your Daily Poem.com, Calabash, The Antigonish Review, as well as in two chapbooks, Poems from Ocean Wilderness edited by Patrick Lane.
Melanie Faye
Melanie Faye, mother, grandmother and retired psychotherapist, born and educated in South Africa, emigrated to Canada to give her children a better life untainted by Apartheid. In her writing, she shares her love of myths, gods and goddesses, fairy tales and the psychology of self and spirit.
Brenda M. Doyle
Brenda M. Doyle has lived a succession of lives: nursing student, religious sister, teacher, child care worker, psychotherapist, mother and grandmother, psychologist, world traveller, and now, a fledgling writer. Her book The Therafields Psychotherapy Community: Promise, Betrayal, and Demise, is available at Amazon and at Indigo.
Kathy Honickman
Kathy is a retired teacher who has written and directed many children’s plays, and produced a weekly newspaper column called, “Parenting,” a working mom’s experiences. In addition to participating in various memoir groups. Kathy’s greatest passion is to spend time with her family in “Spa-Baba.”
Ellen O’Donnell Walters
Ellen is an award-winning adult educator and school administator, now retired. Her career focused on establishing province-wide mentoring support for educational leaders, and promoting group facilitation skills. Professional writing projects have been replaced by creative non-fiction, written to illuminate the family saga for her husband, children and granddaughter.
