Carol
“All women are your sisters: honour them, support them and, when necessary, forgive them.”
Carol is a dedicated learner and a passionate storyteller. She has spent years researching and preserving her grandmother Winnie Cooper’s tale. Winnie was a victim of the Great Child Migration of the 1800s, which was a terrible injustice that few people are aware of. Carol is determined to give her Granny's story the justice it deserves by sharing the story she never got the chance to tell. Her book, “Outside The Gate”, will be released in North America next year. Carol is at her happiest when she's in the company of nature, her loved ones, or new guests. She is motivated by a sense of justice, and she is committed to sharing, exploring, and listening to other people's stories. Meet Carol. This is her story.
Photo by Peter Istvan
P: Please introduce yourself!
C: I’m Carol—a wife, mother, grandmother and, now, I’m a writer. Where I live, in the Muskoka Lakes district of central Ontario with my husband and our fifteen year old granddaughter, I’m blessed to be surrounded by trees, rocks, water and wildlife.
P: Describe or define yourself in your own words.
C: Most mornings, before my daily Zoom yoga, I like to walk in the woods for an hour while my standard poodle burns abundant puppy calories running and leaping like a happy deer. Although I graduated form the business school at Ryerson University in Toronto, my natural inclination is creative, and I took that course for purely practical reasons because I needed a job. In another life I might have been a designer of some sort since I enjoy building, renovating and decorating. I love art galleries, musical theatre and, especially, the ballet.
Photo by Scott Turnbull
Boredom isn’t a word in my vocabulary since my hours are filled with work, study, exercise and time invested with friends and loved ones. I read and write everyday because stories define us as humans. We create and share them and, through them, we enjoy endless experiences beyond our own perspective and culture. Bookstores are some of my favourite places, but I also love to wander in old libraries where respectful patrons still whisper. The musty smell of classic volumes and vintage gum wood lingers on the pages of books I’ve checked out. More than anything else, I’m a lifelong student. Learning motivates me: it’s like trying to eat one potato chip, so once I’m hooked by a topic or a story I can’t stop reading.
P: What is your favourite thing about yourself?
C: My favourite thing about myself is bringing people together, some who are friends, some who’ve just met. I love sending invitations, getting out the fine china, polishing the silver, showing the people who are important to me a good time. I treasure my women friends.
P: Tell us a story. Have you had an experience that has defined you or made you stronger?
C: Fifty-three years ago I married my high school sweetheart. That was the easy part. To stay married one has to be tolerant and flexible, forgiving and hopeful, kind and joyful. Some years were wonderful, some were bloody awful, but mostly we got by on a wing and a prayer. It made us stronger and better at navigating through life’s unexpected hurdles.
P: What is one piece of advice you’d give your younger self?
C: To my younger self. “All women are your sisters: honour them, support them and, when necessary, forgive them.”
P: What does being a woman mean to you?
C: Probably, one the most important events in my lifetime as a woman was the legalization of contraception in Canada in 1969 and the easy availability of the ‘pill’, which scared the pants off men everywhere. Prior to that, women often experienced unwanted pregnancies which kept them in the home and away from the working world, where they might have earned their own money and had control of their own lives. Women finally had choices and look how far we’ve come!
P: Who is one woman that inspires you? What would you say if they were here now?
Photo by Scott Turnbull
C: Many women have inspired me but to choose one, it would be my Granny, Winnie Cooper, who was born in a Yorkshire slum in 1895, then sent to an orphanage at age twelve even though she had a mother. In 1911 Winnie arrived in Canada, one of more than one hundred thousand British children sent here between the years 1869 and 1948 to work as indentured farmers and domestics. The British Child Migration is a little known blight on the history of both countries. While approximately ten percent of Canadians living today are descended from this group, most are unaware of the injustice inflicted upon their ancestors. I’ve invested ten years in researching and writing Winnie’s story. My book, “Outside The Gate”, will be released in Canada and USA in September 2022.