Cover image for Isobel Millen : Adventures of a Grenfell Teacher / Compiled and edited by Jan Redford.
Isobel Millen : Adventures of a Grenfell Teacher / Compiled and edited by Jan Redford.
TITLE:
Isobel Millen : Adventures of a Grenfell Teacher / Compiled and edited by Jan Redford.
Publication Date:
2019
Publication Information:
[British Columbia]: Jan Redford,
Physical Description:
i, 229 p. : ill.
Additional Contributors:
Bibliography Note:
Includes bibliographical references.
Summary:
In 1915, Isobel Millen, a 21-year-old socialite from Westmount, Quebec, set off to teach school for the Grenfell Mission in the tiny community of L' Anse au Loup, Labrador. Isobel not only taught twenty-two students of all ages with no teacher training whatsoever, she was also tasked with pulling and temporarily filling teeth and administering first aid. In her beautiful cursive, she documented her adventures in a very detailed journal: meeting the famous Dr. Wilfred Grenfell for the first time; diving off the SS Strathcona into the Atlantic; climbing the fifty-foot flag pole on a dare at the Point Amour Lighthouse; reveling in boating through stormy seas, the bigger the waves the better. In her photos, which she developed herself, Isobel captured the beauty and isolation of Labrador and left us with never-before-seen images of the people of Labrador, whose descendants still live in L' Anse au Loup today. Over a hundred years later, Jan Redford, an author herself, discovered her grandmother's journal, transcribed it and compiled the photos to posthumously actualize Isobel's big dream of becoming a writer. Though the Grenfell Mission is credited with bringing health care, education and self-reliance to the isolated, poverty-stricken communities of Labrador and Newfoundland, it is also criticized for a moral superiority underlying the need to "save" the people and force a different culture on them. This attitude is prevalent in Isobel's writing, and the reader may cringe at times with her politically incorrect judgements. She is easily forgiven, however, because her curiosity, passion and deep love of the land and people surpass her snobbishness. Her voice is lively, funny and introspective, and at the same time, naive, uncertain and full of yearning. She was a most unconventional woman with wild, "unladylike" dreams who threw herself wholeheartedly into her adventures at a time when it was expected she would marry and settle down. Isobel Millen’s journal and photos provide invaluable glimpses into the daily life of the inhabitants of a tiny community in historical Labrador, into the International Grenfell Association and Dr. Wilfred Grenfell himself, and also into the life of one very unusual woman, who defied the conventions of her time to strike out on an adventure of a lifetime.
Language:
English
ISBN:
9781693689260