I’d like to introduce my friend Mary Ediger. Mary’s mom and dad were named Margarite and Menno. Clearly we had a few things in common when we met. Both her parents were Mennonite pastors and spent their lives in service to that bigger heavenly plan.
They’re gone now, but Mary has written Mennonite Girl, filled with tales of what it was like to grow up as one of five kids (and often as one of ten kids when all the foster kids were counted) of parents with an income that gave ‘poor as church mice’ a new relevance.
When I met Mary in 1983, she had just driven her rusty Dodge Aspen from Chicago to Mission, BC. In large measure she did this because she’d met another Mennonite friend, Margo Friesen, who was volunteering in Chicago under the Mennonite Voluntary Service program. Margo assured Mary that her hometown back in British Columbia was a nice place. Margo flew home from Chicago and they soon became roommates and great friends.
And now, here we are, decades later, all of us connected because Mary had a hunch that she belonged out West and had the courage to follow her heart.
But back to her new book…Mary became one of those friends that you could always count on for an interesting story…usually about her unusual childhood, her innovative father and his cobbled-together creations and her mother that could make something out of nothing…and of course, all those kids.
She’s done us all a favour and put all those stories into a collection called Mennonite Girl.
Now I can hear Mary’s voice whenever I open those pages 🙂
I remember when Mary started writing down her memoirs and then reading them to us while the teachers were on strike in BC – 2002/2003. She kept us both enthralled and entertained with her stories. I am so looking forward to reading those stories!
Thanks for your comment Monica. It’s pretty exciting that she has pulled them altogether. If you click on that link to her book, you can order it directly from Byrler Publishing. Happy reading.
I will be ordering this book! I’ve been recalling several of my own lately, must be that time of life……..
It certainly is that ‘time of life’. Time to look at our stories and see what brought us here 🙂
Is her book on the shelves Colleen? I think our bike trip group should have a mini book club on our friend Mary’s first book!
I can recount many of Mary’s stories, I can hardly wait to read them in print.
Thank you for the info.
Mennonite Girl is being sold at Chapters on the East Coast but isn’t in the Western stores yet. But, If you click on the Mennonite Girl link in this post, it will take you to Bryler Publications where you can order it online 🙂