IN MARGARET’S WORDS – THE BACKSTORY

“This story came to me from my grandmother. When I was a girl, I loved to hear stories from the old people’s childhoods in Prince Edward Island. She told me the story of her grandfather and how he came to be married. He saw his future wife in church and called on her mother to ask for her hand. Her mother said no at first: ‘Take the older one, she’s more settled.’ But no, Ewen wanted Sarah.

Sarah was outside playing with the younger children, up in a spruce tree picking gum, when her mother called her down to meet her future. This moment of pioneer history—at least according to my grandmother—became the heart of my first short story.

What followed was an act of ancestral storytelling. While napping after a writing class, Grandma’s story came alive in a reverie. I dreamed the details, the dialogue, and the descriptions of 19th-century settler life. I thought that was the end of it, but Mattie kept talking to me, insisting I write her full coming of age journey. The original story became Chapter 3, and the rest is the reimagined life of my own ancestors.”