Dresden Church Raised From the Ashes
December 18, 2024
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Visiting the rebuilt Church of Our Lady in Dresden, Germany, was one of the most inspirational experiences of my life.
Visiting the rebuilt Church of Our Lady in Dresden, Germany, was one of the most inspirational experiences of my life.
Four generations of my Indigenous roots are buried at St. Andrews-on-the-Red Anglican Church in this small community near Winnipeg, Manitoba. My brother Rob Florence and I visited their graves recently, paying homage to our joint Scottish-Cree heritage.
There’s a common misconception about what homesteaders wore, since women arriving on this continent at the turn of the century were more likely to dress in close-fitting dark skirts and high-necked blouses rather than the calico gowns and sunbonnets seen in Little House on the Prairie.
The historic Wallace Stegner House in Eastend, Saskatchewan is my home for the month of June, and this heritage home is just filled with charm and atmosphere.
I have two slender connections with the famous philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, but both are very meaningful: my hometown library, and my new book.
Homesteaders were hoodwinked by an unscrupulous Canadian government that lied about the life awaiting them in the so-called land of promise, resulting in untold hardship and heartbreak.
Homesteaders survived that first ghastly winter in shacks made of lumber, logs or even earth. Flora, the heroine in my new historical novel, was one of them.
We recently spent two weeks in the beating heart of Mexico City, where thousands of people were once sacrificed to the Aztec gods and blood gushed down the streets very close to the location of our hotel. It was both gruesome and fascinating.
My visit to Danesfield House Hotel in England was truly a dream come true. Not only is this white chalkstone mansion the setting for my wartime novel Bird’s Eye View, it was also the location for a very special event on May 8, 2022 — the seventy-seventh anniversary of VE-Day, Victory in Europe.
They say every picture tells a story. Among the thousands of photographs stored in my albums and on my computer, some of them are very dear to my heart. Here is the story behind the photo, for ten of my favourite historical pictures.
