Confederate News Donna Mann

Embed Size (px)

Citation preview

  • 8/13/2019 Confederate News Donna Mann

    1/1

    TheConfederate-Wedne

    sda,

    December25,

    2013

    3

    392 Main St. N., Mount Forest 519-323-3630Remember us for your party needs! We Deliver

    445MainSt. North

    MountForest

    519-323-9280

    Seasons Greetings from the staff

    at TSC Mount Forest

    Seasons Greetings from the staff

    at TSC Mount Forest

    By Leah GerberFOR THE CONFEDERATE

    To you who have a dream of what lifemight hold. Even if it seems out of reachor held in other peoples permission andcontrol, it is still your dream and holds

    possibilities, potential and best of all,probability. Donna Mann (dedicationof the Agnes MacPhail series)

    Rev. Dr. Donna Mann loves talkingabout her old friends Agnes MacPhailand Ethel Bullymore, the two real-lifeheroines of the her latest works of his-torical ction,Aggies Voice andA RareFind, respectively. Both books havebeen published in the past month. Rev.Dr. Mann has spent a lifetime with Ag-gie and Ethel, researching their lives andspeaking with people who knew thesetwo incredible women while they werealive.

    Aggies Voice is the third and nalin stalment in Rev. Dr. Manns trilogyabout the childhood and school yearsof Agnes MacPhail, the rst woman inCanadian Parliament. The story germi-nated while Rev. Dr. Mann was still inhigh school, when she rst heard about

    that woman from Grey County throughher father, then a local politician. Later,Rev. Dr. Mann and her husband movedto the Grey area, and after retirement to asmall farm on County Road 9, the sameroad the MacPhail family had lived onall those years ago.

    Says Rev. Dr. Mann, I was in themidst of MacPhail country; I was in themidst of the people who rememberedher, and heard her speak. I never shook

    her hand, but I could shake hands withpeople who did. She challenged all thetraditional ideas of the era for womenstudying, or women going and having alife of their own

    There were plenty of books about Ag-nes MacPhails political years, but verylittle about her life growing up. Rev. Dr.Mann decided to write something soyoung people could relate to her. Shestarted gathering stories.

    Agnes MacPhail was just in every-bodys consciousness, Rev. Dr. Mannsays. Maybe one person was her driver,or another was her housekeepers daugh-ter. Agnes touched every life she cameinto contact with. And the people wantedto be part of her story; they still do.

    Rev. Dr. Mann spent over a decade re-searching and painstakingly piecing thedetails of Agnes MacPhails life togetherin order to represent her accurately, even

    down to the personality of her gradeschool teacher.I cant write that she was a stern or

    happy teacher unless I know says Rev.Dr. Mann, In any of my books, I do not

    make up anything. I really liked Agnes.I liked her as a kid. I liked the stand shetook.

    The author found many aspects of Ag-gies life paralleled her own,

    In the rst book, theres two yearsof door slamming and anger, becauseher dad says, girls dont go to school.And of course, I lived that in my ownlife; girls in the 50s really had to be alot stronger than I was to do anything,

    she said.She took this same careful approach to

    writing A Rare Find, as she spent over25 years researching Ethel Bullymore, anurse who left her daughter to be caredfor by family in England and immigratedto Canada in 1910 at age 27. Leaving afamily member behind was commonpractice in those days. Even in Rev. Dr.Manns own family history, a relativehad been left in England in that era due

    to health problems. Ms. Bullymore hadmoved to Edgerton, Alberta once shewas widowed, to be with a cousin. Thereshe had set up her life and worked as anurse and midwife, where she deliveredover 1000 babies. Years later, the UnitedChurch settled Rev. Dr. Mann to a pasto-ral charge in the same town. Ethel Bul-lymore kept coming up in conversationevery where she went.

    After Rev. Dr. Mann left Edgerton,

    those stories wouldnt go away. So shephoned Ethel Bullymores son and ar-ranged a visit. Sometime later he sent his

    mothers old medical journals, and theresearch began. Rev. Dr. Manns exhaus-tive research is truly a labour of love. Inthe early 1990s, she didnt have the in-ternet as a tool, and she had to send awayand wait for old documents like birthcerticates. If she wanted something like

    a passenger list for a steam ship, she hadto go to the library and manually turn areel through endless lists.

    It wasnt like it is today, she laughs.But it was all worth it.

    Ms. Bullymore changed every cornerthat she stood in. Every place she sat.Every conversation she had, says Rev.Dr. Mann. After spending years with Ag-nes and Ethel, the author feels she hasdeveloped a relationship with them, asthough they are two older sisters.

    Now I read newspapers differently,she says. I see issues Agnes wouldvetaken somebody to the mat on years ago,and were still debating whether theresjustice in something. She wouldvecut through that fog with about sevenwords.

    Rev. Dr. Mann is quite the heroineherself; she and her husband raisedtheir children in the country, and thenshe went back to school. She earned her

    bachelor of arts in sociology and socialwork through correspondence at the Uni-versity of Waterloo. She went on to com-plete her Mas-ter of Divinity,and becamean ordainedminister of theUnited Churchof Canada. Af-ter some time

    in the pastoralcharges, shecompleted herdoctorate. Rev.Dr. Mann hasnursed a life-long passionfor the dreamsof strong, Ca-nadian wom-en, born of her

    own mothersexample, andother womenin her life.

    My momwas a strongwoman. Butshe wouldnever havesaid that aboutherself. In her

    eyes, my dadwould havebeen the farm-

    er; she wouldve seen herself as lookingafter the house and helping him,. shesays. But she was a farmer too. Drovetractor, milked cows. So I learned thatwomen can do what we think as menswork. Its really not mens work; its ourwork.

    Rev. Dr. Mann is also in the process ofsetting up a bursary in Edgerton, Albertaon behalf of Ethel Bullymore.

    Ethel had this saying, she says.Make a difference in somebodys life!I can just hear her voice. So for the stu-dent who can overcome, they should getsomething from Ethel, still.

    Rev. Dr. Mann was also awarded aQueen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubileemedal last August for her work to put upmemorials recognizing Agnes MacPhailin Grey County.

    Rev. Dr. Mann is retired now, and liv-ing back in her hometown of Elora. Somepeople still think of her as Mrs. Mannthe secretary at the old high school(now the Elora Arts Centre) and her hus-band as Mr. Mann, the hockey coach.Though she is a full-time grandma, andheavily involved in her community andchurch, she still writes about strong Ca-nadian women. Already, she has nished

    another book about one of the rst wom-en ordained in the United Church, andhas two more stories in the works.

    Former Mount Forest minister publishes two books in one month

    AUTHORFormer Mount Forest United Churchminister Rev. Dr. Donna Mann has pub-lished two books in the past month,the third in her Agnes MacPhail tril-ogy and one on an Alberta midwife.