Marilyn Norry on writing women’s history: starting with your mother
Why we need to write our mother’s stories
Marilyn Norry is a Vancouver-based actor, playwright, and author of a new book, Writing Women’s History: starting with your mother. She is on a mission to empower each of us to write our mother’s story-about her life as a woman of her times, not just as a mother.
This might sound a little daunting; it was for me —and it never occurred to me to write my mother’s story until I met Marilyn—but she makes it easy to get started. Her origin story made me see my own mother’s story in a whole new light.
It all began in 2004 when Marilyn was at a wedding listening to a friend tell a story when her friend said, “To know what I mean, you have to know my mother’s story” and proceeded to tell the details of her mother’s life (born here, moved there, did this, did that) in about 5 minutes.
Marilyn found this story fascinating, and, even though she thought her mother’s life ordinary in comparison, told her friend the story of her mother’s life back, just the facts. Her friend was enchanted. A few days later Marilyn asked her women actor friends to send her the story of their mother’s life in 2000 words or less.
