Family women’s history comes out

BY WENDY ELLIOTT

Kings County Register

Saturday, Betty Morgan of Port Williams becomes a published author.

Her family biography, “Seven Crows a Secret,” will be launched at the Harvest Gallery in Wolfville June 28.

Morgan began collecting family history in written form about 1980. Her reach goes back four generations to an agricultural era in Nappan, Cumberland Co., but also depicts her own youth seven decades ago.

Using a fiction approach, Morgan describes the lives of her greatgrandmother and grandmother, acknowledging the hard work and circumscribed existence of those farmwomen. With artistic training, Morgan paints strong images in words to illustrate the loss of a farm and the early death of children.

It is when she reaches the lifetime of her mother, Dodie, Morgan hits her stride.

A strong and complex woman, Dodie had rich tales to tell her daughter, growing up in Moncton. The funniest was about her husband, Pat’s, proposal, replete with a confession of splendid tattoos; one of the saddest was about her decision to throw her mother, Sade’s, diaries into the nearby river without reading them.

In a sense, Morgan is redressing that wrong with her book. While she is excited about the publication, Morgan imagines her mother reacting with embarrassment.

“She would not be amused. I feel like I’m fulfilling her legacy for the sake of my kids,” she says.

Sheila Morrison began the editing and publishing process in February. She says she adored “Seven Crows a Secret” right away, and she’s read over 100 autobiographical manuscripts in recent years. Older women have good stories to tell, she firmly believes.

As a professional, Morrison, who moved to the Wolfville area a couple of years ago, removed the stress for Morgan and they’ve become friends.

“It’s been wonderful,” she says.

A thousand copies are being printed by Gaspereau Press in Kentville. Morgan is also having a Halifax launch, and plans to return to Moncton High School for her 60th high school reunion in July.

The Wolfville launch will take place from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.