0:00:17.800,0:00:24.740
Mary: “I’m a woman who stands at the midpoint
of four generations of women who have
0:00:24.740,0:00:31.550
cared deeply about what was called the
social gospel.
0:00:31.550,0:00:41.620
It represented a belief
that religion was not a private vision
of God,
0:00:41.620,0:00:52.610
but a message about responsibility
and concern for others.
We seek a community, a nation, a world, where
0:00:52.610,0:00:59.390
life is fair for everyone where children
are fed and treasured,
0:00:59.390,0:01:04.210
where there is safety and clean air and no war.
0:01:05.910,0:01:12.580
Virginia Woolf said in a writer’s diary
that she was inspired by what she called
0:01:12.580,0:01:22.300
“reality”.
If I could catch the feeling I
would, she said.
0:01:22.300,0:01:30.220
The feeling of singing of
the real world.
The sense that comes to
me of being bound on an adventure,
0:01:30.220,0:01:39.170
that is the reality.
Life is an adventure.
0:01:39.170,0:01:47.080
I can testify to that with every fiber
of my 88 year-old self.
The adventure has to do with love,
0:01:47.080,0:01:53.250
but also, most poignantly,
with the search for truth.
0:01:53.250,0:01:58.800
When you have truth you have meaning,
and when you have meaning you have it all.”
0:02:08.530,0:02:12.550
Eric: Well, when I said mother gave us the best
of ourselves I think she gave us
0:02:12.550,0:02:17.160
our humanity, our care for people.
0:02:18.330,0:02:25.180
Probably, by example, respect for
ourselves.
0:02:25.180,0:02:35.650
She helped build our self-esteem.
0:02:35.650,0:02:41.050
Nancy Ruth: As I traveled with her as a
child or a young woman she would
introduce me to a politic,
0:02:41.050,0:02:48.630
to a to an art form, to an expression of one thing or
another, and it was like tasting bits of her world.
0:02:48.630,0:02:53.280
Edward: Well sure I’d try to give her a big
a tender hug, but you just put my arms around her
0:02:53.280,0:03:05.940
but you just touch her, you know.
0:03:05.940,0:03:12.780
Rosario: It’s true that I develop self-confidence and
I learn how to face, and talk to people.
because she told me that um, I did not
0:03:12.780,0:03:18.930
come to Canada to just sit in a chair.
0:03:18.930,0:03:24.050
I have to face people and to be with people.
0:03:24.230,0:03:31.610
Eleanor: She was an usual woman.
0:03:31.610,0:03:38.220
And I do think it’s the combination of pain
and opportunity,
0:04:08.590,0:04:14.120
and intrinsic character
0:04:14.120,0:04:16.330
Narrator: Mary Coyne Rowell was born into a family
that nurtured her passion for social justice.
0:04:17.019,0:04:20.750
Her parents, Nell Langford and Newton Rowell
were a devoted and influential Methodist couple
0:04:20.750,0:04:27.230
The conditions that they saw around them shaped their social and
political values.
0:04:27.230,0:04:36.919
They cared deeply and actively about the world of which they
were apart.
0:04:36.919,0:04:44.390
At the same time they were committed to the voice
and the future of their country.
0:04:44.390,0:04:49.640
Margaret: Well I don’t think that
0:04:49.640,0:04:58.100
either Newton or Nell were what you’d
call revolutionaries,
0:04:58.100,0:05:04.639
but they certainly were reformers.
0:05:04.639,0:05:09.169
Mary: “My interest in international affairs
came naturally, due to the activities of my parents.
0:05:09.169,0:05:13.970
My mother was president of the Canadian YWCA
and their representative to the World Organization,
0:05:13.970,0:05:17.600
and I attended World conferences with her.
0:05:17.600,0:05:22.490
These dealt with the conditions facing
immigrant women and women factory workers.
0:05:22.490,0:05:26.390
My father was in the national government
as Minister of Health and president of the Privy Council
during the First World War.
0:05:26.390,0:05:30.860
He was a Canadian representative
0:05:30.860,0:05:34.850
at the first meeting of
the League of Nations,
0:05:34.850,0:05:41.360
and early president of the
Canadian Institute of International Affairs.”
0:05:41.360,0:05:46.550
Nancy Ruth: She grew up in a formal household
where the dining room table conversation was of international
affairs and affairs of state in Canada
0:05:46.550,0:05:53.630
and political talk, and all this kind of
stuff.
0:05:53.630,0:05:57.410
Mary: “We children when we were small had nursery tea and only came down for
dinner
0:05:57.410,0:06:03.740
when we were old enough to behave ourselves and sit quietly.
0:06:03.740,0:06:11.240
And I remember my father would often tell us
interesting points of legal cases that
he had been taking in court.”
0:06:11.240,0:06:19.890
Eleanor: She had at a young age wide scope of understand
and her relationship with her father was
0:06:19.890,0:06:26.790
really very tender and trustful.
0:06:26.790,0:06:32.730
So she must have grown up in an atmosphere where
she knew she was cherished, but that she
had duties,
0:06:32.730,0:06:40.650
and these were almost equally strong forces within her.
0:06:40.650,0:06:47.130
Narrator reads Methodist Creed:
Do all the good you can, by all the means you can,
0:06:47.130,0:06:50.600
in all the ways you can, in all the places you can,
and all the time you can, as long as ever you can.
0:06:52.930,0:06:59.560
Narrator: The Methodist Creed was more than a call
to Judy.
0:06:59.560,0:07:05.380
It was a call to action in every part of life
for all of one’s life.
0:07:05.380,0:07:12.610
Mary’s grandmother wrote this letter to
her teenage granddaughter,
0:07:12.610,0:07:18.370
Mary’s grandmother: “I am thinking
lately about our grandchildren I do so
covet one or more for the mission guild
the need is so great
0:07:18.370,0:07:23.410
and the Lord who has given such advantages to you all,
wants laborers who will answer the call
0:07:23.410,0:07:34.060
saying: here am I – send me!”
0:07:34.060,0:07:40.180
Narrator: Her grandmother’s call resounded in a world
swept up in the torrents of change.
0:07:40.180,0:07:47.280
The missionary movement and colonialism
continued to transform Asia and Africa.
0:07:47.280,0:07:54.370
The First World War was raging in Europe.
Women were fighting for the right to
vote.
0:07:54.370,0:08:00.849
The Bolshevik uprising engaged
millions of people in the excitement and
the upheaval of revolution.
0:08:00.849,0:08:05.289
As Mary grew and developed, she was aware that she
must find a place for herself in this
0:08:05.289,0:08:10.750
world of change.
0:08:10.750,0:08:15.190
In fact, these issues
were to define her choices and her
activities throughout her life.
0:08:15.190,0:08:20.270
When she was 13 Mary was sent to a
private school in a quiet corner of
0:08:20.270,0:08:33.589
Quebec her parents expected her to learn
French to honor Canada’s two cultures.
0:08:59.170,0:09:05.480
Mary’s lifelong joy in female
friendships bloomed here.
0:09:05.480,0:09:11.230
The friends she made at school would later sustained her
through her darkest hours.
0:09:33.550,0:09:38.960
0:09:38.960,0:09:43.010
Even though Mary was far from home,
spreading her wings perhaps for the first time,
0:09:43.010,0:09:49.640
her mother reached out
reminding her daughter of her
obligations and responsibilities.
0:09:49.640,0:09:55.760
Mary’s mother, Nell:
“My dear Mary the fact that you are head girl,
I feel it is a real honour.
0:09:55.760,0:10:01.520
I know you will realize it is also a responsibility.
I hope you will use your position in the
best way at all times.
0:10:01.520,0:10:05.900
In so many little ways you can help build up the best in
your school and strengthen girls in taking the highest stand.”
0:10:05.900,0:10:15.290
Narrator: The pressure to
meet her family’s loving expectations
0:10:15.290,0:10:23.000
suddenly became even more urgent and
intense.
0:10:23.000,0:10:28.430
Eric: Mother’s favorite sibling, Lankey,
her elder brother, he died of a sports
injury at Victoria College.
0:10:28.430,0:10:36.110
And that was a great loss for her.
0:10:36.110,0:10:41.110
Lanky was sort of the
pride and joy.
0:10:41.350,0:10:53.150
Margaret: Lankford’s death
was a terrible blow to the whole family.
0:10:53.150,0:11:02.879
I know that Rowell didn’t talk much about
it.
0:11:02.879,0:11:08.979
Langford had been expected to go into
law and then perhaps joined the firm the
father was in.
0:11:08.979,0:11:26.799
Nancy Ruth: The pictures of her with her brother
Langford are tender and just so touching.
0:11:26.799,0:11:35.169
I think it was a huge loss to her but it
was also a loss because she became the
eldest child.
0:11:35.169,0:11:40.209
Mary: “Why couldn’t it have been
me?
0:11:40.209,0:11:50.949
A daughter can never mean what the
eldest son does to parents and so it
seems so useless for me to ever try to heal their wound.”
0:11:50.949,0:11:54.539
Narrator: The family had suffered this grief before.
When Mary was only 4 her younger brother Edward died in
infancy.
0:11:54.539,0:12:00.029
Nell’s sorrows never entirely left her.
0:12:01.319,0:12:06.089
Mary’s presence was a comfort for her
family.
0:12:06.089,0:12:11.589
Mary’s father, Newton: “Dear Mary, This is to wish you a very
happy birthday on Monday next.
0:12:11.589,0:12:17.079
It was indeed a glad day when you came
to us 20 years ago.
0:12:17.079,0:12:23.529
Each year has come with added pleasure and
satisfaction as we have watched you grow and develop.
0:12:23.529,0:12:28.419
You are now the joy and comfort of our home.
0:12:28.419,0:12:32.889
This past year has not been an easy one
for any of us but you have made it so
much easier for your mother and me by
0:12:32.889,0:12:38.649
your constant thoughts and care for us.
0:12:38.649,0:12:48.519
I cannot tell you all that you have meant
to us this year and I cannot tell you
all it is meant to me.”
0:12:48.519,0:12:53.489
Narrator: Still struggling with her sorrow Mary returned to her
studies.
11. A Summary of Mary’s Life
