Publish with FriesenPress
Learn how you can publish your book with the world’s only 100% employee-owned publishing services provider.
And The Day Came
by
Marion Perepolkin
This revealing and heartfelt memoir explores the lives of the early Russian Doukhobor women and men who worked and farmed in Canada, and saw their children forcibly removed and sent to residential schools in hopes of assimilating them. It also tells the story of one contemporary woman who finds herself drawn to nursing in some of Canada’s most remote and isolated Indigenous Arctic communities. Through her eyes, we explore Indigenous cultural practices of dancing, drumming, games, sacred retreats and sweat lodge ceremonies. Through her words, we learn of the interesting parallels between elderly Russian women and Canadian Indigenous elder women. And from her heart, we learn of her journey of self-discovery when one son is diagnosed with autism and her beloved aging mother develops chronic health problems and dementia. Ultimately, the author unlocks her personal creative vision and art and finds that home is within her – it is wherever she is. This is a memoir about love, compassion, humour, respect, discovery, grief and blossoming.
And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. —Anaïs Nin An interesting and exciting read. —Jon Turk, Crocodiles and ice: A Journey into Deep Wild
Marion Perepolkin worked as a registered nurse for twenty-eight years. The last fourteen were spent working in Indigenous communities in Canada’s High Arctic and other Northwest Territories communities, allowing her to experience the richness of Canada’s diversity in ways that many only dream about. Much like her ancestors’ years before her, her life is one of unfolding and risktaking. The family history of hardship and its loss of so many of its young has given her a resilience that is born of life lessons learned. In her experience, the folk medicine her grandmothers worked with to help future generations thrive surely helped. Marion is now on a journey of creativity through her art and writing. Born in Oliver, BC, Marion grew up in the Kootenays and Vancouver. She has two sons, Erik and Curtis. Curtis has non-verbal autism and lives in a group home. Erik is a college student and adventurer. Travel is Marion’s lifeblood. She is currently planning to spend her sixtieth birthday traveling in China, Mongolia and Russia.
Contributors
- Author
- Marion Perepolkin