Making It Fun With Mary Owen
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Everyone says they have the best grandma. Not everyone is right. I am right. My grandma is the best. Her name is Mary Louise Adamson Owen, and back in March, she agreed to be my very first guest on This Is Your Strange and Beautiful Life. “I can’t believe we’re doing this,” she said as we started recording. A natural podcast star, Mary shares about her first memories (and mishaps), her time in the Navy, suitors lost in WWII, motherhood, marriage, divorce, career changes, her renaissance after 50, writing her memoirs in her 80s, and what it’s like to be 96 going on 97. Mary offers solid proof that a sense of humour and a good cry can get us through just about anything. This episode is so special, I tear up just thinking about it. Love you, Grandma!
Behind the scenes with Grandma
MARY ADAMSON OWEN is a writer, WREN, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, gardener, dear friend, former schoolteacher, and retired career woman. In 1944, Mary joined the Women's Royal Canadian Naval Service (WRCNS), more lovingly known as the WRENS. After learning Morse code in Ste. Hyacinthe, Quebec, Mary was sent on a secret mission in Baccaro, Nova Scotia. There she helped to monitor a long-range navigation (LORAN) installation that sent private signals to Canada’s ships and planes. Her work was considered to be crucial to the war effort, and her fellow WRENS would become her lifelong friends. Looking back on her life, Mary considers her greatest accomplishment to be her three lovely children, who were all much easier to raise once they turned 24. Known for her vivacious sense of humour and the twinkle in her eye, Mary leaves a sparkle wherever she goes. She lives in Perth, Ontario where she will celebrate her 97th birthday in early June.
Mixing, Ukulele, and Cover Art by Erica J. Schmidt in Montréal, Quebec
Ukulele Songs:
See See My Playmate
Moon River (chords only, arrangement by Cynthia Lin))
This Little Light of Mine (chords only)
Grandma and the Wrens in the News
Special thanks to Taes Leavitt (darling big sister, Big Heart Journey), Sherwin Tjia (technical and creative advisor, Sherwin’s Quirky Events), and my dearly departed Eileen Gun, whose generous gift helped to fund my new podcast equipment. Thank you so much for listening! Stay tuned for more episodes extra soon. Don't forget to follow This Is Your Strange and Beautiful Life on your favourite podcast platform. And if you enjoyed the episode, I would be immensely grateful if you could share it with a friend and/or leave a kind and enthusiastic rating and review. (Here are those handy links again: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts.)
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