Meet Linda Seccaspina
Keep an eye in The Record for columns from newly recruited contributor Linda Seccaspina.
Here is a brief introduction to the writer, originally from the Townships, before she begins dipping her toe into the history of the region.
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My formula for living and writing is quite simple. I get up in the morning and I go to bed at night and in between I write trying to make my mark in the world.
I don’t write words like Leonard Cohen, but some people say I gained my originality because I was born on the hottest day in July in 1951 at Brome Missisquoi Hospital in Sweetsburg, Quebec. According to my father’s endless stories; I just didn’t want to face the world everyone else's way, so they pulled me out with the biggest Long Needle Nose Pliers they could find.
I was never a scholar of any kind during my years at Cowansville High School-more of a quiet trouble maker not wanting to follow rules. If you don’t do stupid things when you're young you will have nothing to talk about when you become my age-- and, let me tell you I have an encyclopedia of opinions to discuss, whether people want to hear them or not.
About 18 years ago something interesting happened-- I began to write. I wish I could tell you why, but honestly I can’t. I began to write my opinions about politics and local crime for American publications, but it just didn’t seem to fill the void in me. Then I began to write celebrity gossip for a website belonging to one of Oprah’s ex-producer’s, but in reality, how many face lifts can you really write about?
One day I began to document endless journeys down memory lane on my own terms. It became important for me to convey to today’s and tomorrow’s generations that maybe living years ago really wasn’t so bad. In addition to my essays I even documented my own Obituary. After Derek "Wheels" Wheeler from Degrassi Jr. High died no one seemed to know what to say about him-- and I didn’t want that to happen to me. When people read it online they said I had a real talent and told me I should consider a career in writing obituaries. But since I had already published my obituary I never really got any offers as most people assumed I was already dead. Really, it isn’t about being, or not being dead, it’s about what you leave behind. We can either run from it or learn from it, and hopefully you will find something in my column that will remind you to never forget what life taught you.”