Born in Turkey on April 23, 1936, Suna Smith left this world on July 8 in Camrose Alberta, where she had lived for more than half of her 80 years. An accomplished psychiatrist and professional woman, Suna held her family dear and met her first great-grandchild just hours before she died.

For 37 and a half years, Dianne Dutcher worked at Providence Manor, the long-term care home founded by the Sisters of Providence in their foundation building in Kingston.

This July I immersed myself in the Sisters’ past, researching and writing the history of the Sisters of Providence as teachers at St. Margaret’s School and Maryvale Abbey in Glen Nevis, Ontario. Around that same time my husband and I decided to go to the Glengarry Highland Games in Maxville and we stayed the night at Maryvale Abbey, which is now a bed and breakfast called the Abbey Inn.

We had access to hundreds of manuscripts and printed records about the war. And, more broadly, about how the war – and wars in general – are remembered and commemorated. We hope that The Vimy Trap shows just how complex our sense of Canada’s past can be. 

“In Kingston, weather stations in and around the city had never recorded an April and May as dry as they’ve seen this year, going back to at least 1960. The rain that fell over the city during those two months of 2016 was less than a quarter of the normal amount,” announced Scott Sutherland, meteorologist for the Weather Network.

Stillpoint sits on the Madawaska River in a picturesque area of the Ottawa Valley. There are five guest rooms. It is a place of silence, in a homelike setting. Two Sisters run the place. Sister Betty Berrigan, Stillpoint’s director, is a Sister of St. Joseph in Canada and her Congregation owns Stillpoint.

Sister Rita Gleason knew that she was called by God. She had no doubt that religious life was for her. But she had one hesitation. To enter a congregation would surely mean giving up her beloved piano. She knew sacrifice was involved and that would be hers.

Change is coming to Sister Margo Shafer as she leaves the Meeting Place and Huntsville.

Sister Catherine Casey spends time with Catherine McKinley, founder of the Congregaation. be inspired through this lovely poem and prose.

Sister Jeannette Filthaut, SP, was the 2016 Legacy Day speaker at St. Mary's Hospital in Camrose, a Covenant Health institution. She used the Year of Mercy to talk about the values and missions of the founding Sisters which translates into the compassionate service of the staff today.