In Her Glory: A memoir in prose and poetry

Deeply rooted in Newfoundland culture and experience, In Her Glory by Marian Frances White, sheds light on a way of life that has all but disappeared. White’s mother, Florence, only had a Grade 3 education, yet she raised her 12 children with education as her focus. The book reveals how women who gave birth and raised huge families are our unsung heroines. Within these pages, White celebrates her mother’s contribution to our culture and world.

This story-driven poetic journey criss-crosses pre-confederation Newfoundland takes readers into Confederation with Canada in 1949 and to ancestral homelands in England, Ireland, and Boston and back to present day.  White’s writing leans on social history as context and shows the relevance of knowing our past and coming face to face with truth that often exposes some not-so-pretty memories. Harsh realities abound amidst stories of resilience.

The first section, Mark My Words, reveals an era when servitude was a way of life. The Questionnaire shares the author’s childhood memory of trying to make sense of her mother’s early life as a domestic worker. Encyclopedia Britannica explores the fear mothers of the late 50s had of their children getting polio from borrowing books at the library or swimming in a local stream. Many mothers became obsessive cleaners to ward off the fear of polio being a disease of poverty. White explores the underlying fear of owing someone for something they could not pay for.

While White’s writing is about love, life, grief and loss, it is not macabre, but uplifting and celebratory as White takes an expansive look at her mother’s life; a life well-lived.

White leans on the Newfoundland vernacular to express the universal complexities of motherhood and familial relationships. In Her Glory will appeal to anyone who loves story-driven writing; an essential element that has infused all of White’s work. As an author and filmmaker, she knows that both poetry and drama are revealed in the minute details and momentous events of everyday life.