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Senior Moment Navigating the Challenges of Caring for Mom
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$22.95Monica Graham got her first inkling that her eighty-nine-year-old mother might not be able to continue living on her own when she coated chicken breasts with dishwashing liquid for dinner. It was an easy mistake—the yellow detergent lived right beside the olive oil on the kitchen counter. Graham could easily have done the same thing herself, she thought.
But as her visit with her mom in Corner Brook, Newfoundland, progressed, Graham—who lives in Pictou, Nova Scotia—began to recognize that her mother had been successfully hiding increasingly apparent signs that her memory was failing; she wasn’t getting by as well as she had been letting on. So began the arduous process of finding and securing a safe place for her mother to live—and of clearing out several decades’ worth of belongings.
Part memoir, part cautionary tale, part how-to guide, Senior Moment offers insight and practical guidance for Atlantic Canadians on how to usher a loved one into the world of continuing care. With wit, wisdom, and a dose of whimsy, author Monica Graham explores the inevitable hurdles of caring for our elders.
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In the Spirit Reflections on Everyday Grace
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95The wonder of a human hand; the tenacity of trillium; the restorative power of a hymnal: these topics and many more are explored in this thought-provoking collection of 80 spiritual essays from author-journalist Monica Graham.
Taken from the best of the Chronicle-Herald column of the same name, In the Spirit explores with wit and wonder our human relationship with spirituality and religion. With a journalist’s curiosity, Graham asks the tough questions on a variety of subjects, from the implications of declining church membership, to Sunday shopping, to the merits of curiosity and acceptance in faith, but urges readers gently to come to their own conclusions. Whether we pray out loud or in silence, at the pub or the pew, this collection boldly holds each of us accountable to and responsible for our own spirituality, however we may choose to practice.
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Fire Spook
$15.95Graham, with a journalistic, fact-collecting approach, painstakingly tries to piece together what happened when mysterious fires and other mischief drove a respectable family from its home near Caledonia Mills, close by the Antigonish-Guysborough county line in 1922. It is a story that exists in countless versions and under names ranging from Mary Ellen Spook, to the Caledonia Mills Spook, the Bochdan of Caledonia Mills to simply, Spook Farm. It is also a story that has come down through the generations, told in Gaelic and in English, in country farmhouses, public meeting rooms and university residences for almost a century.Graham is at her best in introducing Alec MacDonald, his wife Janet Cameron and their adopted daughter Mary Ellen MacDonald whose father was killed by a falling box of coal in the Drummond Colliery in Westville. Alec and Janet had a connection to the family, and as was often done in those days, they took one of the four children into their care. The MacDonalds were plagued, to a degree that can no longer be substantiated; by nuisance occurrences such as cows loosened from their stanchions and household items disappearing but in 1922 they were subjected to mysterious, relentless fires that ultimately drove them from their home.Graham documents the MacDonalds’ lives after they left the farm and examines the various theories put forth to explain the forces that so disrupted them. Some of the theories, she acknowledges, are as equally unlikely as evil spirits at work but it is interesting to see how investigators formulated their theories by relying heavily on certain pieces of evidence or personal accounts while discounting others.
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Bluenose
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$15.95The second title in the Stories of our Past series, Bluenose tells the story behind the ship on Canada’s ten-cent coin. Beginning with the schooner’s launch in Lunenburg in 1921, author Monica Graham describes Bluenose‘s career as a fishing boat, her racing exploits (seventeen years undefeated in the International Fisherman’s Trophy), her representation of Canada at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1933, and her time as a shipping vessel in the Caribbean rum and sugar trade. The book’s final chapter recounts Bluenose‘s demise on a coral reef in Haiti and the launching of the replica, Bluenose II.
Using a colourful design, and with photos, maps, diagrams, interviews with crew members, and sidebar features on sailing and shipboard life, Bluenose offers a fascinating introduction to a Canadian and Nova Scotian emblem to satisfy a variety of interests.
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The Great Maritime Detective
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95He was a sailor a miner, a bounty hunter, a prospector, a ghost hunter, and a railway guard, just to name a few. Whether sinner or saint, Peter Owen Carroll, a.k.a. Peachie Carroll, is best remembered as the infamous Maritime police detective of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Although his methods were sometimes unscrupulous, and he was often considered a mercenary, Peachie Carroll was a formidable investigator. Peachie was fired, re-hired, and quit many times, but as a police officer Peachie solved some of the Maritimes’ best-known crimes, such as the murder of Moncton police officer Joseph E. Stedman. He arrested moonshine-makers and embezzlers, petty thieves, rum-runners, bank robbers, and murderers. In 1896, Peachie gained fame again, solving the New Brunswick murders of Eliza Dutcher and her son.
In The Great Maritime Detective, author Monica Graham profiles this long-standing hero of Pictou County and one of the region’s ultimate characters. -
Historic Town of Pictou
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95Monica Graham is a long-time resident of Pictou County and is a freelance journalist and photographer whose work has been published in many newspapers and magazines including The Chronicle Herald, Pictou Advocate, and Canadian Living. She is the author of Pictou County.
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Historic New Glasgow, Stellarton, Westville and Trenton An Illustrated History of New Glasgow and area
Publisher: Nimbus Publishing$19.95Well known for its mining and manufacturing activities, New Glasgow, Stellarton, Westville, and Trenton, share a fascinating history. First settled by the Mi’kmaq and Acadians, and later by a large influx of Scots, the area became an important hub supported by coal and steel industries that attracted people from all walks of life.
Author Monica Graham outlines the towns’ coal and steel industries, their businesses and institutions, and their best-known people and landmarks. With over 180 historical black and white images from the 1870s to 1940s, Historic New Glasgow, Stellarton, Westville, and Trenton is an excellent addition to the Images of Our Past series.
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Fire Spook
$15.95Graham, with a journalistic, fact-collecting approach, painstakingly tries to piece together what happened when mysterious fires and other mischief drove a respectable family from its home near Caledonia Mills, close by the Antigonish-Guysborough county line in 1922. It is a story that exists in countless versions and under names ranging from Mary Ellen Spook, to the Caledonia Mills Spook, the Bochdan of Caledonia Mills to simply, Spook Farm. It is also a story that has come down through the generations, told in Gaelic and in English, in country farmhouses, public meeting rooms and university residences for almost a century.Graham is at her best in introducing Alec MacDonald, his wife Janet Cameron and their adopted daughter Mary Ellen MacDonald whose father was killed by a falling box of coal in the Drummond Colliery in Westville. Alec and Janet had a connection to the family, and as was often done in those days, they took one of the four children into their care. The MacDonalds were plagued, to a degree that can no longer be substantiated; by nuisance occurrences such as cows loosened from their stanchions and household items disappearing but in 1922 they were subjected to mysterious, relentless fires that ultimately drove them from their home.Graham documents the MacDonalds’ lives after they left the farm and examines the various theories put forth to explain the forces that so disrupted them. Some of the theories, she acknowledges, are as equally unlikely as evil spirits at work but it is interesting to see how investigators formulated their theories by relying heavily on certain pieces of evidence or personal accounts while discounting others.
