During the Victorian era, England saw many technological and economic changes and improvements that caused a separate group of people, the middle class, to evolve alongside wealthy aristocrats.

Sadly, there were many who slipped through the cracks—particularly the children without a family. These orphans were often abandoned in society by mothers who could no longer care for them. Most ended up in orphanages.

Many authors at that time, such as Charles Dickens, portrayed these orphanages as overcrowded and unsanitary, and most orphans were dirty and malnourished. Corporeal punishment was excessive. Often the people overseeing these facilities took a major part of the stipends themselves and spent very little on the children.

The mortality rate was atrocious. According to Dickens in Oliver Twist,

But some of the orphans placed in orphanages considered themselves lucky compared to other abandoned children. They were at least provided with food, clothing, and shelter and some minimal education. On the other hand, children sent to workhouses, were not so lucky. Life there consisted mostly of hard grind and no educational opportunities.
 
The ultimate goal for orphans was to be adopted or for a parent to return for them, but this did not occur very often unless a close relative came forward to take them on. Any adoption that did happen was usually on a very informal basis.
 
After the age of 15, orphans were expected to earn their own living in the world. As their education had been minimal, the only work available to girls was usually “in service” to the gentry as scullery maids. Boys from country orphanages might alternatively be hired on as farm laborers or gardeners.
 
Many orphans ended up as criminals living on the streets after the age of 15, doing menial work or begging for money in order to survive. Girls turned to prostitution.

Fortunately, some orphanages at that time actually helped children.

Two particularly philanthropic souls, the Reverend Edward Cridge and his wife, Mary, set sail from England in 1854 aboard the Marquis of Bute to take up tenure at Fort Victoria on the west coast of British Columbia.

Among their many contributions in the new world, including the betterment of education in Victoria, was the Protestant Orphans' Home, founded in 1873 to help the growing number of orphans who previously had depended solely upon the kindness of strangers to take them into their own homes. The Protestant Orphans' Home was officially opened in November of 1873. 

Today, the Cridge Centre in Victoria still stands and continues the original work of hope and support for all vulnerable people, offering a women's transition house as well as children and seniors' services and a young parent outreach program.
 
The protagonist in my upcoming novel, Providence, begins life in a country orphanage in England in the 1840s, where I have depicted, with some poetic license, what life must have been like for those children abandoned in such places.

In my book, I have painted a more optimistic picture of life for those abandoned children who did survive, and when you read it, I hope you'll admire my heroine as she strives to overcome her miserable fate—at all costs. 

In today’s world, she would have been a “Me Too” woman, encouraging other women to believe they were capable of anything— if they put their minds to it. 
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Let me know what YOU think.

Like millions of people around the world,  I watched the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Ms. Meghan Markle (now the Duke and Duchess of Sussex).
 
This is the third wedding I have attended in my pyjamas! Yes, my daughter and I started watching it live in Canada at the ungodly hour of 2:30 a.m.  We did the same when Prince Charles and Princess Diana got married and then Prince William and Kate Middleton (now the Duchess of Cambridge.)
 
Prior to that, I lived in England so could watch royal weddings live at a respectable hour! But having English blood pumping through my veins, I have never lost my love of the monarchy and the mystique surrounding it all. I am not ashamed to say that I absolutely wallow in all the royal traditions and history.
 
Once again, this wedding was well worth waking up early or staying up late for. To begin with, it was good to watch something happy for a change instead of the bad news we are bombarded with daily.

This royal wedding was a positive event, and anyone with an ounce of optimism must have seen the hope for a better world through the eyes of this young couple so obviously in love.
 
After all, Harry and Meghan have really achieved what at one time would have been the impossible. A prince marrying an African American, divorced woman, and an actress to boot!  What would Queen Victoria have thought of that? I’m sure she would not have been amused.
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But these two young lovers have brought the monarchy well and truly into the 21st century. Their wedding, executed in their own special way, was a mixture of simplicity and splendor.

We won't quickly forget the wonderful touch of humor provided by the black pastor, the Reverend Michael Curry, who delivered a somewhat lengthy, but very passionate sermon, raising a few royal eyebrows. Or the eternally beautiful “Stand by Me” provided by Karen Gibson and the Kingdom Choir, which sent shivers down many a spine.

The wedding location was also ideal: Windsor Castle.

The castle, built by William the Conqueror in the 11th century, has been home to 39 monarchs. Queen Elizabeth II spends her weekends there and has declared it to be her "favorite home."

I have fond memories of many visits to Windsor Castle when I was growing up in England. At that time, there weren't long lines and thousands of tourists everywhere.

Later visits on trips back to England were disappointing because of the crowds and all the strict security—so much a sign of the times these days. Nonetheless, I still love the quaintness of the town of Windsor and the magic of the castle where guards shout “Who Goes There?” and you are warned to stay back or else!

My family and friends in England were smart enough to watch the wedding on television rather than standing for hours in the hot sunshine in Windsor for a mere glimpse of the royals and other celebrities. I think I would have agreed if I were still living in England.
 
For me, this wedding brought hope for a brighter tomorrow amid all the horror in the world today. I believe Harry and Meghan will do a great deal of good throughout the world—and if I’m wrong I will eat my fascinator (that’s a hat, by the way!).
 
Did you stay up (or get up early) to watch the royal wedding? Were you as glued to it all as I was?  Please leave a comment below.

It isn't a surprise that in the 19th century, health standards were much lower than they are today. Life expectancy in 1850 was only 40 years old.
 
People rarely went to the hospital, and very few home remedies really worked. Laudanum (a tincture of opium) was used for severe pain, but other drugs such as aspirin did not appear on the market until 1899.

​Surgical procedures were often performed in the home under less-than-hygienic conditions. A strong shot of whisky or a rag wrapped in ether were used as anesthetics. Later, chloroform became the anesthetic of choice.
 
From advertisements in local newspapers, I discovered a few so-called “cures” offered by medicine men who roamed the streets in the Victorian era selling their wares to the unsuspecting:

• “Fragrant Sozodont” claimed to cure bad breath while cleansing and purifying teeth. 
• “Bristol’s Sugar-Coated Pills” cured all diseases of the liver, stomach and bowels.
• "Ayer’s Cherry Pectoral” stopped colds, coughs, and bronchial infections “before they ran into consumption,” which medicine men claimed “could not be cured.” 
• Drinking a daily shot of “Bristol’s sarsaparilla” was supposed to keep every part of one system’s free from sickness and in clean working order. And it was said to be “the only genuine and original preparation for the permanent cure of the most dangerous and confirmed cases of scrofula or King’s Evil, old sores, boils, tumors, abscesses, ulcers, and every kind of scrofulous and scabious eruption.”
• Sarsaparilla’s many wonders did not end there! It could also cure salt rheum, ring worm, head scurvy, white swellings, languor, dizziness, and infections of the liver, biliousness, chills, fevers and jaundice.  
  
• “Genuine Honduras Sarsaparilla” was a reliable cure for even the worse case of syphilis, while “Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound” was advertised to cure women’s cramps and hot flashes!
  

Since the earliest days of the Fort in Victoria, BC, a plethora of these medicine men drifted in and out of town, advertising themselves as doctors but having little or no medical skill. Most were soon found to be imposters, earning them the title of “quack.”
 
By contrast, the professional doctor was a much-respected man, despite having few genuine cures at his disposal. He would make home calls only if someone was very sick.  Most people could not afford medical attention, and if a doctor was called out, he knew that he would probably not be paid.  As a result, many people turned to those “medicine men” who roamed the streets selling their wares and offering cures for “all that ails you—from hangnails to falling hair.” 
 
Well-established doctors in Victoria such as Dr. John Helmcken were incensed by these imposters and the “quackery” they practiced.
 
By the time the 19th century drew to a close, a group of established Victoria physicians (Helmcken, Fraser, Hannington, Holden, Carter, Milne, Robertson and Hall) had formed a medical association to finally regulate the profession and give it the respect it deserved. 

But many people still died far too young.
 
Women frequently died in childbirth, and people continued to expire from such simple ailments as the common cold turning to pneumonia, infections, or malnutrition over a long period. 

Coroners’ reports written between 1865 and 1937 reveal many other strange causes of death, such as “poisoning while in a state of insanity” or “shooting while temporarily insane.” 
 
I  also discovered that two men in 1872 died after eating poisonous mushrooms, and two others lost their lives to a knife cut and a gunshot wound, respectively.  Many committed suicide or were listed as having died from shock. 

One person was attacked by bears in 1873, and another died from a rock falling on him!  The following year, one man “took an overdose of a drug used for sun stroke”—perhaps sold to him by one of Victoria’s street medicine men.
 
Railway workers’ deaths were also numerous, especially among the Chinese population, and many inquests were held after such tragedies as the explosion on board the steamship Queen of the Pacific in 1886, the Point Ellice Bridge collapse in 1896, and the collision between freight and passenger trains on the BC Electric Railway in 1909. 
 
So, even though we might complain about today’s medical plans, if you live in Canada and become sick, aren’t you glad you live in the 21st century?

​What do you think? Please leave a comment below.

Through the years, many famous visitors have come to Victoria on Canada’s west coast.  The history books and newspapers of the day describe their visits in detail.
 
For instance, although Queen Victoria herself never visited her namesake city, her daughter Princess Louise, came to the city in 1882.  She apparently loved Victoria so much that some thought she would never leave! She was often spotted wandering along Government Street.

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​Another famous visitor was Winston Churchill, who came in 1929 and planted a tree in Beacon Hill Park.   

Members of the British Monarchy are always visiting Victoria. In 1919 the then Prince of Wales came here after WWI and in 1939 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visited prior to WWII. In more recent years, Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Phillip, Prince Charles, Prince William, and the Duchess Cambridge with Prince George and Princess Charlotte have graced our shores.

But one man is seldom remembered when we discuss our famous visitors.

That man is Rudyard Kipling, who made three visits to Victoria (in 1889, 1892, and 1907) and included it in  his poem “Song of the Cities”:

From East to West the circling word has passed,
Till West is East beside our land-locked blue;
From East to West the tested chain holds fast,
The well-forged link rings true!

Here’s more about the British poet and novelist:
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• He was born in Bombay, India, in 1865, where his father was a professor at the Bombay School of Art.
• He was sent to a private boarding school in England and eventually returned to India in 1882.
• In 1889 he was living in London again and in 1892 had married an American woman, Carolyn Balestier. Later they moved to the US and settled in Vermont. They had three children. Their only son was killed in WWI, and one of their daughters, Josephine, died young.
• He wrote many books, including The Jungle Book in 1894 and The Second Jungle Book the following year. In 1896 he published The Seven Seas and Soldier Tales. He and his wife settled back in the English countryside in 1897, where his book Captain Courageous was published.

Kipling loved to travel the world, but his time in Victoria, British Columbia, made a special impression on him.

For instance, while staying at the Oak Bay Hotel, he wrote a poem (unpublished) after a "night out" with John Virtue, the proprietor of the Oak Bay Hotel where he stayed in 1907. The first verse of that poem reads:

Judging from Kipling's description of coming back to his room later that night, he must have been a little the worse for wear after a good night out!

In 1908 he wrote his famous description of the city for Collier's weekly magazine in 1908 (vol. 41):

Kipling continued to travel the world for years and published many more books, poems, and short stories before his death in 1936 at age 70.

He received various honorary degrees and awards, some of which he declined, but he did accept the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907. He was the first English writer to receive this award.

The pallbearers at his funeral included UK Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, an admiral, and a general.

He is buried in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey in London. In Victoria, we still have an apartment building in Oak Bay named for him: the Rudyard Kipling.

​Did you know about Kipling’s visits to Victoria?  And do you agree with his description of our fine city?

Please leave a comment below and let me know what you think.

If you enjoyed reading about Kipling, check out this post about another historical figure who chose a significantly different line of work.

Many love themes run throughout my historical family saga series, The McBride Chronicles, set mainly in British Columbia, Canada, and taking place from the 1830s to present day.

While researching romance during those years, I discovered, for instance, that in the Victorian Era (1837–1901), there was a great deal of formal courting. In the upper classes, it was almost an art form.

A gentleman interested in a certain lady could not simply start up a conversation with her at a social event without a formal introduction. And it would be some time before it was considered appropriate to speak to her or for them to be seen together.

After they had been formally introduced at an event, the gentleman would present his card to her if he was interested and wished to escort the lady home. At the end of the evening, the lady looked over the cards she had received and then chose who would be her escort. She would then notify the lucky man by giving him her card in return.

Actual courting only took place in the young lady’s home and always with a chaperone close by, usually her parents. Eventually the courting might progress to the front porch. Any marriage proposal would usually be handwritten, after the gentlemen had first approached the lady’s father.

Fun Historical Tidbits
Here are some more facts I discovered about romance and courtship throughout history:

1. In ancient times, where there was a scarcity of women, men often raided other villages and captured women for themselves.
2. An old French custom declared that as the moon went through its phases, a couple would drink metheglin, a brew made from honey—hence the term “honeymoon” today. (Contrary to what we'd like to think, "honeymoon" wasn't derived from a term of endearment.)
3. Most marriages were arranged between families for the purpose of business relationships, for property, or for a political alliance. Love was seldom a factor.
4. Many of today’s courting rituals, such as opening doors and buying dinner for a woman, are derived from medieval times (the period between the 5th and 15th centuries, also known as the Middle Ages).
5. Suitors often wooed a lady by serenading her or reading poetry.
6. Chastity was always highly regarded.
7. Some cultures throughout the world believed the idea of matrimony constituted “the ties that bind,” and in some African cultures, long grasses were braided together to tie the hands of the bride and groom in a marriage ceremony to symbolize their eternal union.

 
Love in the 19th Century
But, as I also discovered, not all courting couples adhered to the traditions of their time in history. I decided to portray some such characters in The McBride Chronicles, so I created relationships and love between different classes, women who risked their reputation for love, and love affairs during times of war, when men and women lived only for the moment.

​In the 19th century, even the love affair between Queen Victoria and Prince Albert was far from ordinary or conventional. She had to propose to him because of their stations in life.

There was a great love between them, despite their frequent quarrels during the marriage. When Albert died at a young age, Victoria went into deep sorrow and mourned him for the remainder of her life.

​My own grandparents, Ernest Coulson and Annie Letitia Barber (their wedding in 1898 seen below), had a traditional courtship and were apparently a very loving couple who raised six children.

But judging from their wedding picture, the celebration looked to be rather a sombre affair! 

Courtship Today
​I must admit I regret how love and courtship has changed over the years—even since the 1960s and 1970s when I was young.

Relationships between partners today are more informal. Many choose to live together and have children without the benefit of traditional marriage.

But who am I to judge? Everyone should do what works for them—as long as love is present. Love is really all that matters.

Please leave a comment below and let me know your views about love and romance in the 21st century as opposed to days gone by. I would love to hear from you.

After years of writing historical nonfiction books, I am more than a little excited to announce my debut novel, Providence, the first in the McBride Chronicles historical family saga series, will be released later this fall.

Years ago, a very wise teacher once told me "only write about what you know."  Well, I always loved history, my educational background was in history, and I thought I was pretty good at it!

But how, I wondered, can anyone know exactly what it was like to live back in the past?

As a nonfiction book writer, I was more than a little familiar with researching historical figures and situations and then writing about them—the true facts.

Now as a fiction writer, I seem to be doing even more research, analysis, and investigation into living life in another century while at the same time trying to forget everything about life as we know it in the 21st century. It's no easy process!

For the past weeks, months, and even years while the McBride Chronicles series has been coming to life, I have found myself researching some of the following topics while trying to think and act like someone living in the 19th century:

• English orphanages
• Scottish fishing villages
• Working "in service" as a maid
• Early medicine
• Travel by sea
• Gold rushes in British Columbia
• Riverboat captains on the Fraser River (British Columbia)
• Maritime disasters
• Wars
• Love and courtship in the Victorian Era

Placing my characters in these settings has been a challenge—but a most enjoyable one.

For a fiction writer, though, research alone is not enough. Creating real-life flesh-and-blood characters is essential.

Over the next several months, I will be blogging about some of these topics. SO if you enjoy historical fiction as much as I do, I hope you will follow along on my adventurous journey.

Please read my blogs, leave a comment (good or bad), join my email list by signing up for my "freebies" (the first is "Poker Alice"), and watch for the release of Providence, my debut novel, to be published by Sandra Jonas Publishing, Boulder, Colorado.

​I hope you will be in for a treat . . .

Prohibition days certainly encouraged “rum-running” and “bootlegging,” and many became very proficient at the game.

But how could a once-honest cop possibly turn into an infamous bootlegger?

I love discovering characters from the past that were just a little different from the rest. Crossing the line of respectability made them that much more intriguing.

And such a man was Roy Olmstead from Seattle.
​
He was born on a farm in Nebraska in 1886 and was raised by good farming folk to become an upright citizen. In 1907, he joined the Seattle Police Force, following in the footsteps of his older brother.

And by 1910 he had been promoted to sergeant.

PROHIBITION DAYS
In 1916 Washington joined the “dry" states as a result of prohibition, and a year later, Joe Warren was appointed Seattle chief of police. He soon noticed Olmstead’s diligent work and squeaky clean record so by 1919 had appointed him to lieutenant.

Although not officially working on the “dry squad” himself, Olmstead soon became very familiar with the way bootleggers operated as they plied the waters of the Pacific Northwest between Seattle and Vancouver Island. Many of them made money while others continued to just make mistakes so they were caught. Olmstead realized where they went wrong and was convinced he would do much better at the game.

So he began to operate his own small bootlegging business, believing that working on the other side of the law would be a piece of cake! Unfortunately, he too made mistakes and was soon caught, fined, and eventually dismissed from the police force.

That didn’t bother him, because he had wanted to go into the bootlegging business full time anyway. Eventually he became one of the largest bootlegging operators and employers in the Puget Sound.

THE BOOTLEGGER
By 1924, his operation was so successful that he was able to wholesale liquor to numerous clients, many of whom were Seattle’s elite and even some police officers who turned a blind eye to what he was doing.

At the height of his career as a bootlegger, Olmstead’s organization alone was delivering 200 cases of Canadian liquor into the Seattle area daily, and he was grossing $200,000 a month. He owned a fleet of vessels and had purchased a farm outside town to store the contraband goods.

Strangely, he never allowed his men to carry guns. He believed it was better to lose a shipment rather than lose a man’s life. This was quite a departure from other bootleggers at the time and certainly contrasts today’s views of owning guns in the US.
​
But soon Olmstead was caught, and his operation came to an end. On January 19, 1925, Roy and his second wife, Elise, were both arrested.

Elise Olmstead (using the name “Aunt Vivian”) had been broadcasting children’s bedtime stories over a radio transmitter from one of the bedrooms in their elegant home. In point of fact she was really sending out coded messages to rum-running vehicles!

Many in Olmstead’s organization were also arrested and two of his vehicles, the Eva B and the Three Deuces were seized and over 700 cases of liquor and 240 cases of contraband goods were confiscated.

Olmstead’s Trial became one of the largest and most controversial in US history.  Olmstead was sentenced to four years in the McNeil Island Federal Penitentiary and fined $8,000. His wife, Elise, and seven other defendants were acquitted.

Having studied the law well and with his wife’s help from the outside, Olmstead made frequent appeals to the higher courts during his incarceration, and in February of 1928, the Supreme Court heard the famous Olmstead v. United States case. His lawyers claimed that wiretapping set up by the Prohibition Bureau was illegal.

In May of 1931, Olmstead was finally released from prison, and on Christmas Day 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt granted Roy Olmstread a full pardon, restoring all his constitutional rights plus canceling the $8,000 fine and another $2,288 in court fees.

A CHANGED MAN
By then Olmstead was a changed man. While in prison, he had embraced the Christian Science faith and now believed that liquor was a curse!

Following his release, he made a living as a furniture salesman and his wife divorced him, maybe finding him less appealing as an honest man. He began to visit prisoners in the King County Jail, preaching to them about the evils of drink! He even became a Sunday school teacher, and many alcoholics were released into his custody for counseling.

Roy Olmstead the “good cop” had returned. You can read more of his story in my book Legends, Liars and Lawbreakers.
​
But what, I wonder, happened to all those rum-running boats? Two of them (the Eva B and the Three Deuces) were seized by customs officials during the 1920s. During WWII,  George E. Murry was the officer in charge of a boat called the Zev, which he believed had once belonged to Olmstead. The Zev had been confiscated by the US Coast Guard Reserve and later put into service by them based in Elliott Bay in Seattle.

​There were a fleet of other boats that had once plied the waters of the Pacific Northwest. Does anyone have any information about what happened to any of them?

If so, please leave a comment below. I’d love to hear from you.

If you have ever visited my hometown of Victoria in British Columbia, there were probably two landmark structures that caught your eye—the Parliament Buildings on Belleville Street and the Johnson Street "Blue Bridge" leading to Esquimalt.

The impressive Legislative Buildings still stand and have since 1897, officially opening in February of 1898. Sadly, however, the old blue bridge erected in 1926 will soon disappear, replaced by a new state-of-the-art bridge, currently standing alongside. Ironically, there is an interesting connection between these two landmarks—budget—and therein lies this tale.

The Parliament Buildings were designed by architect Francis Rattenbury, who won a competition to design them under the pseudonym of “ABC Architect.”

Parliament had initially been housed in buildings known as the “bird cages” because of their unusual and rather ugly appearance. So you would think that people would have been delighted to have the new grand structure overlooking the harbor.

Not so! The erection of the buildings had vastly exceeded its original budget of $500,000. Final cost of construction came in at $923,882, and completion had also been delayed by two years.

Almost 30 years later in 1926, the original “blue bridge” was constructed. And despite a long-held nostalgic affection for the old bridge, in 2009 it was decided by the powers that be that updating the bridge to today’s seismic standards would cost too much and a brand-new bridge would be cheaper to construct.

But the final cost of the new bridge turned out to be almost three times the original estimate:

1. In 2009 the cost was estimated to be between $35m and $40m and would take approximately four years to build.
2. Four years went by and the cost kept rising—$48m, $60m—and by the end of 2017 had reached the astronomical figure of $105m.
3. In early 2018 the lifting device for the new bridge (nicknamed “the Beast” because of its enormous size) finally arrived in town from China (where it was built!) and then was further delayed by high winds before it could be set down in place.
4. Barring more delays, the new bridge will finally be open to car traffic at the end of March 2018.

Isn't it strange how two Victoria landmarks are connected by “budget issues”—a big topic of controversy back in the 1890s and an equally controversial subject over 100 years later in 2018?

These problems of budget are not restricted to Victoria. I discovered some fascinating global facts about this topic. For instance, statistically at least 85% of every construction project around the world will go over budget.

This happens because certain things are seldom factored into the original estimate, including:

1. Unplanned escalating costs over time
2. Poor allocation of resources
3. Relationship issues (problems with contractors)
4. Employee absenteeism
5. Poor workmanship
6. Environmental factors (weather, etc.)

All adding up to a lack of foresight!

So, as for Victoria, what do you think? Do you agree that the elegant Legislative Buildings were well worth the extra expense despite being over budget?

And how do you feel about the new bridge, about which there are still ongoing discussions?

The problem now seems to concern its name. In point of fact, it leads off Pandora Street and NOT Johnson Street, so should it be called the Pandora Bridge or will it forever be known as “the blue bridge”? 

Please leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Through the ages, hats for women have been both a necessity (to keep warm) and a mere fun accessory. Milliners (mostly women) have been creating hats and bonnets with style and flare for centuries. But did you know that the term "milliner" originated in Milan, Italy, where many of the finest straw hats and hat forms were made during the 1700s?
​
A few years ago, I met a young woman working as a receptionist in Victoria but designing hats on the side. It was her dream to become a milliner of note.

Tierre Taylor moved to Toronto where there was more opportunity to realize her dream. On a trip to New York one day in 2015 (wearing one of her own creations), she was spotted by a newspaper reporter who ran a story about her . . . the rest is history. She now has her own business and is catering to women of all ranks in life. People love her hats, and it is obvious that hats have not gone out of fashion. You can also find her on Facebook. Take a look at those gorgeous hats.
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The woman protagonist in my upcoming novel, Providence, probably wore many hats from the 1840s to the year 1945. Even in the orphanage where she grew up, she would have worn a cap. When she worked in service as a maid, it would have been a small white lace arrangement. Later when she was the chatelaine of a large house, her hats would have ranged from smart to ornate, many with feathers to adorn them, perhaps similar to the one above.

Other famous women during those years are pictured here:

Let us not forget the hats worn by gentlemen . . .

There might be a revival in hats. Women are wearing them more now at weddings, and the hats of my little milliner friend in Toronto who realized her dream are becoming more and more popular.

What goes around comes around.

In 1839, in his play about Cardinal Richelieu, Edward Bulwer-Lytton wrote that the pen is mightier than the sword. In the play, this famous quote applied to using words to gather support for a cause, as opposed to fighting with weapons. I believe it can also apply to being able to write through times of intense sorrow.

But what happens when the writer holding the pen cannot find the words to describe the indescribable? Does that allow the sword to win? No, it does not!

Being a writer, I am rarely at a loss for words, but today I find I cannot adequately describe the atrocious tragedy that happened to our family and to the entire community of Victoria, British Columbia, on Christmas day. The story has been widely reported by the media so I won't expound on it here.

I was reluctant to write this blog, other than to add that the mother of the two little girls who were murdered by their father was like a daughter to us, and when her own parents died, my husband and I were honored to act as surrogate grandparents to her beautiful daughters.

But no one wants to be reminded of the deaths of two innocent children. So, instead, I have searched my heart to try to find another side to this tragedy and our own insurmountable grief. Once again, I have resorted to the written word.

By doing so, I have discovered that on the opposite side of evil, there is incredible good. I have become more aware of the kindness of people. I have realized that none of us is alone in this world. I have known the comfort of hugs and prayers and the warmth of people who truly care. I have seen the strength of the human spirit, which is so much stronger than the evil in men's hearts.

Although we are angry about a tragedy that should never have happened, we also have hope for a peaceful but vastly changed tomorrow. As the shock lessens, we will recall only the happy memories of two sweet angels who died far too soon but will remain in our hearts forever.

The path through grief is different for everyone. Some find it in solitude. Some need to be surrounded by others. Some find it by walking in the wilderness and discovering the beauty of nature. And some, like me, find it in writing and expressing my feelings that way.

It will be a long journey ahead for us all, but I'm thankful that today I found the strength to write this blog because it has proved to me that the pen is indeed far mightier than the sword. The pen will always win. It is a much more effective tool than direct violence.