Saturday, October 8, 2011
When you grow up in the 60's, the greatest compliment you could give was to call someone 'cool'. My Aunt Mary was 'way cool'. She sent books for my birthday that were ahead of the bookclub list, and ornaments for Christmas that became family favorites, just because they were unique and special. I forget which gift it was exactly, but I received one at university, and one of the other girls in residence said - 'your aunt is so 'cool'", so from then on I called her my 'cool Aunt Mary'.
But she was also a role model, as were all of the women in my family in that generation. My mother - Jean (Anderson)Holder, and my aunts, Mary Holder, Margaret Holder, Margaret Ross, and Grace Anderson were all born in the early 1900's. They ALL had post-secondary education, they ALL worked outside the home as professional women. When I went to university, there were girls there that were the very first in their families to complete high school, let alone attend university. And some were there under tremendous pressure to do well, or to come home and follow what was then the more traditional path of homemaking. I am in Alberta, and there are statues here to the 'famous five' - the suffragettes who helped win the vote for women. But my 'famous five' are my mother and my four aunts who paved the way for me and made my trip an easy path to follow. Kind, gracious, humble, thoughtful, interested, interesting - thankyou Aunt Mary, and all of you. Love, Marjorie