Some Lifting Yesterday Thank Yous

Since presenting my offer for Lifting Yesterday, I have heard from a number of friends and even a couple of strangers, who have subscribe. Thank you, to all who have expressed interest in the book and willingness to wade through the text on the screen. Most subscribers have opted for the “once a month” delivery, but a few intrepid souls have chosen to get the files all in one whoosh. My hope and wish is that my subscribers will enjoy the read and find something of interest and relevance, perhaps even resonance, in the pages.

My intention over the next year is to post some additional, hopefully interesting information relating to the particular chapter I am sending out that month. Even though I have already started sending out the Introduction and Chapter One, which is about Great Village in particular and about landscape/place in general, this post is primarily about an important source for the book as a whole – specifically about two people to whom I owe a profound debt of gratitude. Without their support of my work on Bishop, Lifting Yesterday would never have come into being. Both of these people are gone now, and I miss them greatly; but their impact on my life endures.

I am speaking of Elizabeth Bishop’s first cousin Phyllis Sutherland, and Phyllis’s daughter, Miriam Sutherland. I met them both in 1991 and they welcomed me into their home and family and through them I learned a great deal about the intriguing Bulmer-Hutchinsons. Phyllis was in possession of a substantial archive of family material (which is now housed at Acadia University Archives), and she gave me ample access to it. Over several years I catalogued it. Miriam and I were almost exactly the same age. She was born three days before me in the same year/month. It always pleased Miriam that she was older than me. Miriam was one of the most special people I have ever met. She had the warmest heart of anyone I know and a phenomenal memory for names, and could remember who the people in those old photographs were better than her mother.

I want to acknowledge their importance in the existence of Lifting Yesterday (Phyllis was one of the handful of people who read the entire manuscript in the late 1990s and accepted my interpretation of Gertrude Bulmer Bishop, which meant a great deal to me). I found a couple of old photographs, which I wanted to share. Thank you Phyllis and Miriam!

(l to r) Wallace (Bud) Bowers, Lois Bowers, Phyllis Sutherland and Maria Lucia Martins, 2010

Miriam Sutherland and Sandra Barry looking at Bulmer family photographs, 1992

I also want to reiterate, if you are interested in Lifting Yesterday, you can subscribe any time. I can accept not only cash or cheque (Canadian and US), but I am also able to accept e-transfers (in Canada only) and overseas wire transfers. The cost is $25.00. Stay tuned for further updates.