Heroes leave indelible mark
Alexa McDonough’s passing has columnist remembering others who impacted her life
I feel very fortunate to have met some of my heroes over time. One of them died recently – Alexa McDonough. She worked so hard in the political trenches with such honestly and tenacity that it would be hard not to give her big hoorays. I met her again a number of years ago and she was just as gracious as ever.
Her death made me think back on other people who are gone now, but who have left an indelible mark on my mind and soul. Here are some of them.
I was a friend of Muriel Duckworth back in the late 1960s and early 1970s. She was the leader of the Voice of Women (VoW) in Halifax during those antiVietnam War days. I marched with her and helped wherever I could. She was dedicated beyond belief. She was kind and she could be funny.
She patiently taught me what the VoW was all about. Through that group, I met Thérèse Casgrain, a monumental intellect from Quebec. She paid for a proper berth on my train ride for a VoW conference in Calgary. She didn’t want to have me sitting in coach the whole way.
And there were other heroes in that movement – the Raging Grannies, remember them?
The 4th Estate, as an entity, is also a hero of mine. In the late 1960s, an intrepid family started a bi-weekly, which became a weekly newspaper. The paper attracted some of the most interesting people I have ever met. Some took a risk to write for the paper. Others, like me, were just lucky to be a worker bee there.
That little paper caused quite a stir in the upper echelons of power of the day. It worked hard for the ordinary people – fishermen, artists, and more – who weren’t getting recognized by the other media. There are too many to mention them all but Nick Fillmore, the managing editor, was my hero of that time.
My great aunt Ethel – known as Auntee – was a hero of mine. She was a civil servant in Ottawa. She was the one who lived with my great grandmother in her last years. I was told that Auntee drove her black coupe car to Banff, Alta., to play golf – that’s from Ottawa – either before the Second World War or right after. That made her a hero in a young girl’s mind.
I met some remarkably strong First Nations women and men in Canada’s North when I lived there. They believed that speaking in their language on the radio was one of the most important ways to help to keep the culture alive. With English being blasted from television sets from American channels, this was a daunting task.
The people who are braving the weather this winter “protecting” the forest just up off Highway 10 are my heroes. They are putting themselves out in both bad and good weather for something in which they believe strongly. That’s heroic in my book.
My Mom and Dad are heroic too. As I have said before in this column, Dad went to England to join the Royal Air Force (RAF) in early 1939 and ended up flying Spitfires throughout the war.
And my Mom went over to England in 1940 where I was born. His life would have been very terrifying at times, especially since he had to parachute out of his plane in Belgium in January 1945. He was safe. And my Mom didn’t know when he would be home or if he would come home. Like so many others of that time, bravery was in large supply.
My daughters have put up with a lot of stuff in their lifetimes and they rank pretty high on the list. I’ll leave the rest of my family alone for now, but you know who you are.
There are public figures who can be called heroes. There are also those who have braved hardships that we may never know about but who need our special thoughts.
When I heard that Alexa had died a week and a half ago, it made me think that while we may have well-known heroes, everyday people can be heroic too. Have a look in your memory file and think of all your heroes. We need every one of them these days.
Anne Crossman is a former journalist and media manager. She now does volunteer work in her community of Centrelea, Annapolis County.