11. A Summary of Mary’s Life

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Mary: “I’m a woman who stands at the midpoint
of four generations of women who have
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cared deeply about what was called the
social gospel.
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It represented a belief
that religion was not a private vision
of God,
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but a message about responsibility
and concern for others.
We seek a community, a nation, a world, where
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life is fair for everyone where children
are fed and treasured,
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where there is safety and clean air and no war.
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Virginia Woolf said in a writer’s diary
that she was inspired by what she called
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“reality”.
If I could catch the feeling I
would, she said.
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The feeling of singing of
the real world.
The sense that comes to
me of being bound on an adventure,
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that is the reality.
Life is an adventure.
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I can testify to that with every fiber
of my 88 year-old self.
The adventure has to do with love,
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but also, most poignantly,
with the search for truth.
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When you have truth you have meaning,
and when you have meaning you have it all.”
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Eric: Well, when I said mother gave us the best
of ourselves I think she gave us
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our humanity, our care for people.
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Probably, by example, respect for
ourselves.
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She helped build our self-esteem.
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Nancy Ruth: As I traveled with her as a
child or a young woman she would
introduce me to a politic,
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to a to an art form, to an expression of one thing or
another, and it was like tasting bits of her world.
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Edward: Well sure I’d try to give her a big
a tender hug, but you just put my arms around her
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but you just touch her, you know.
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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
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come to Canada to just sit in a chair.
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I have to face people and to be with people.
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Eleanor: She was an usual woman.
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And I do think it’s the combination of pain
and opportunity,
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and intrinsic character
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Narrator: Mary Coyne Rowell was born into a family
that nurtured her passion for social justice.
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Her parents, Nell Langford and Newton Rowell
were a devoted and influential Methodist couple
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The conditions that they saw around them shaped their social and
political values.
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They cared deeply and actively about the world of which they
were apart.
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At the same time they were committed to the voice
and the future of their country.
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Margaret: Well I don’t think that
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either Newton or Nell were what you’d
call revolutionaries,
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but they certainly were reformers.
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Mary: “My interest in international affairs
came naturally, due to the activities of my parents.
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My mother was president of the Canadian YWCA
and their representative to the World Organization,
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and I attended World conferences with her.
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These dealt with the conditions facing
immigrant women and women factory workers.
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My father was in the national government
as Minister of Health and president of the Privy Council
during the First World War.
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He was a Canadian representative
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at the first meeting of
the League of Nations,
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and early president of the
Canadian Institute of International Affairs.”
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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
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and political talk, and all this kind of
stuff.
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Mary: “We children when we were small had nursery tea and only came down for
dinner
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when we were old enough to behave ourselves and sit quietly.
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And I remember my father would often tell us
interesting points of legal cases that
he had been taking in court.”
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Eleanor: She had at a young age wide scope of understand
and her relationship with her father was
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really very tender and trustful.
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So she must have grown up in an atmosphere where
she knew she was cherished, but that she
had duties,
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and these were almost equally strong forces within her.
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Narrator reads Methodist Creed:
Do all the good you can, by all the means you can,
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in all the ways you can, in all the places you can,
and all the time you can, as long as ever you can.
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Narrator: The Methodist Creed was more than a call
to Judy.
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It was a call to action in every part of life
for all of one’s life.
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Mary’s grandmother wrote this letter to
her teenage granddaughter,
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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
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and the Lord who has given such advantages to you all,
wants laborers who will answer the call
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saying: here am I – send me!”
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Narrator: Her grandmother’s call resounded in a world
swept up in the torrents of change.
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The missionary movement and colonialism
continued to transform Asia and Africa.
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The First World War was raging in Europe.
Women were fighting for the right to
vote.
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The Bolshevik uprising engaged
millions of people in the excitement and
the upheaval of revolution.
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As Mary grew and developed, she was aware that she
must find a place for herself in this
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world of change.
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In fact, these issues
were to define her choices and her
activities throughout her life.
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When she was 13 Mary was sent to a
private school in a quiet corner of
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Quebec her parents expected her to learn
French to honor Canada’s two cultures.
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Mary’s lifelong joy in female
friendships bloomed here.
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The friends she made at school would later sustained her
through her darkest hours.
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Even though Mary was far from home,
spreading her wings perhaps for the first time,
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her mother reached out
reminding her daughter of her
obligations and responsibilities.
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Mary’s mother, Nell:
“My dear Mary the fact that you are head girl,
I feel it is a real honour.
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I know you will realize it is also a responsibility.
I hope you will use your position in the
best way at all times.
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In so many little ways you can help build up the best in
your school and strengthen girls in taking the highest stand.”
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Narrator: The pressure to
meet her family’s loving expectations
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suddenly became even more urgent and
intense.
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Eric: Mother’s favorite sibling, Lankey,
her elder brother, he died of a sports
injury at Victoria College.
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And that was a great loss for her.
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Lanky was sort of the
pride and joy.
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Margaret: Lankford’s death
was a terrible blow to the whole family.
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I know that Rowell didn’t talk much about
it.
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Langford had been expected to go into
law and then perhaps joined the firm the
father was in.
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Nancy Ruth: The pictures of her with her brother
Langford are tender and just so touching.
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I think it was a huge loss to her but it
was also a loss because she became the
eldest child.
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Mary: “Why couldn’t it have been
me?
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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.”
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Narrator: The family had suffered this grief before.
When Mary was only 4 her younger brother Edward died in
infancy.
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Nell’s sorrows never entirely left her.
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Mary’s presence was a comfort for her
family.
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Mary’s father, Newton: “Dear Mary, This is to wish you a very
happy birthday on Monday next.
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It was indeed a glad day when you came
to us 20 years ago.
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Each year has come with added pleasure and
satisfaction as we have watched you grow and develop.
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You are now the joy and comfort of our home.
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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
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your constant thoughts and care for us.
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I cannot tell you all that you have meant
to us this year and I cannot tell you
all it is meant to me.”
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Narrator: Still struggling with her sorrow Mary returned to her
studies.