Old Stones: The Biography of a Family

Pauline Carey is an actor, playwright, and fiction writer. She is the
author of Magic and What’s in a Name?

The author’s mother grew up in a Gloucestershire mansion with 16
bedrooms and a full complement of servants; her father claimed an
ancestry of pioneers from the Maritimes to Vancouver Island but grew up
in working-class Vancouver. From these diverse backgrounds Eric and
Elizabeth met on an English train during World War II and, despite
considerable family opposition, became husband and wife. We are halfway
through the book before Elizabeth arrives in Vancouver, where Eric
eventually opens up his own law practice.

The early part of this history is mostly gleaned from Penne’s
conversations with her mother, who explains the social rules of English
society and spells out the bizarre rituals of daily living in her
well-to-do family. The father is more reticent, initially being content
to hand over files of military records.

All of this sets the stage for when Penne brings the story into Canada
and into her own life (she is now a writer and a teacher). Question by
question she unearths the struggles faced by Elizabeth in dealing with
unaccustomed poverty and extreme culture shock and by Eric, who lost a
leg during the war, in establishing a successful business and providing
for his family. Now the story opens up and the emotional life of this
family quietly comes to the fore.

The Canadians returned regularly to England but it was a long time
before the English relatives visited Canada. When they did,
Elizabeth’s mother learned to love the country that Eric so proudly
drove her through, and her aunt was tickled to eat hamburgers without a
knife and fork.

In a family whose recurring theme has been an inability to show
affection, Penne discovers small incidents that reveal unexpected
kindness and passions underlying the cool behavior. By the end of the
story, a rapprochement is achieved.

There is one photograph of Coates Manor in Gloucestershire. A family
tree would have been helpful.