2024 is L.M. Montgomery’s 150th birthday! The L.M. Montgomery Institute (LMMI) at the University of Prince Edward Island is celebrating with 150 tributes – celebratory statements or greetings – that reflect upon personal connections to Montgomery or on an aspect of her life, work, or legacy.
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Wear the Green Ribbon. To celebrate World Mental Health Day on October 10th, which in 2024 is focusing on workplace mental health, this week’s tributes feature the impact that Montgomery’s writings have had on rabbi and chaplain, Lori Klein; writer of eco-fiction, Gail Collette; daycare provider and storyteller, Nicole Flaten; and author, Liz Rosenberg, on paying it forward.
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Anne through the eyes of hospital chaplain Lori Klein
I became an acolyte of Anne and, through her, of Lucy Maud Montgomery when I read an abridged version of Anne of Green Gables as a child. More than fifty years later, I continue to re-read the series and see Anne through the eyes of a hospital chaplain. Even though Lucy Maud Montgomery struggled with her own mental health in later years, through Anne she created a model of emotional wellness. Anne insists on expressing her vulnerable feelings of sadness, grief, and yearning. She both nurtures loving relationships and cultivates a lush inner life. She seeks out awe in the natural world. As a girl growing up with a mother experiencing mental illness, I found that integrating Anne into my being helped keep me whole. Today, when I support patients, their loved ones, and hospital staff, Anne and Maud still accompany me as guides. Happy birthday to Maud!
Lori Klein is a rabbi and chaplain living in California. Her article “What Anne Taught Me About Living with Tragedy and Grief” was published in the Mental Health collection of the Journal of L.M. Montgomery Studies.
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Montgomery as muse for eco-fiction writer Gail Collette
From an early age I have used images and phrases from Lucy Maud Montgomery’s writings as mantras in daily life. I mentioned this when I was interviewed on CBC Radio about favourite Canadian authors, in the late 1990s. Anne Shirley provides a comforting thought in chapter 2 of Anne of Green Gables: “it would be lovely to sleep in a wild cherry tree all white with bloom.” Such a phrase lightens the spirit and still seems to me like a calming tool for mental wellness.
When I respectfully look to Maud as a muse, I overflow with appreciation for nature. I have channeled this influence into my eco-fiction short stories and a novel. The renowned author has left an outstanding legacy in literature, with an enhanced insight into nature and mental wellbeing.
My almost yearly visits to Montgomery’s resting place in Cavendish give me a chance to say a prayer of thanks for so many hours of enjoyment and enlightenment, while at her side.
Gail Collette published a novel of ecology fiction in 2022 and won an award for a children’s short story of the same genre in 2023. She has had short stories and poetry published in anthologies. She was a judge for the Stephen Leacock Award for Humour. Gail writes regularly for a New Brunswick journal and magazine.
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Daycare provider Nicole Flaten finds strength through storytelling
The last few years have been the darkest and toughest times in my life. I started reading L.M. Montgomery, and her books helped me heal through grief.
Montgomery taught me to be true to who you are no matter what, despite what people assume or think of you. She taught me that it’s OK to change and to be authentic. It’s OK to evolve. It’s OK to not live solely on the expectations of others and what they think I should be doing and who I should be. Her writings show that connection is essential. Storytelling is the root of who we are. Storytelling encourages me to be creative, challenge assumptions, and, finally, to be curious.
Nicole Flaten lives in Daysland, Alberta with her Australian Shepherd. She currently works as a daycare provider. In her spare time, she enjoys art, hiking, and writing.
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Author Liz Rosenberg on writers paying it forward
Anne of Green Gables is one of the first books I can remember loving – and of course it was a gift from my mother, in a grass-green hardcover, which finally fell apart as I was writing House of Dreams: The Life of L M Montgomery. My mother figures in the making of that biography, as well as having given me the initial spark. Candlewick Press had kindly given me the choice between creating a child's picture biography, or one designed for readers 12 and up. My mother asked what the difference might be. I explained that if I wrote a children's picture book biography, I would focus mostly on her childhood and youth and successes. If I wrote the other book I'd have to deal with her failures too – and with thorny issues like her mood swings, her marriage, and possible suicide.
"Why would you take the easier path?" my mother said.
Here for me is the key line from Maud's private journal I would not have known if I hadn't written that harder biography, and I'm placing it in context here: One reviewer commented that Anne of Green Gables “radiates happiness and optimism.” This is clearly true. Anne of Green Gables, with all its mishaps, pathos and adventures, is a literary anti-depressant, full of beauty and comedy. The novel serves as a charm against darkness. The laughter in the book is never forced, for it comes from a deep source. Whatever debt Maud owed to books such as the ever-magical Tales of the Alhambra by Washington Irving, she conscientiously repaid in her own writings. The brilliant sparkle of her work, its heart-raising effervescence, was hard-earned and deliberate. “Thank God, I can keep the shadows of my life out of my work,” she wrote in her journal on 15 October 1908. “I would not wish to darken any other life – I want instead to be a messenger of optimism and sunshine.”
Liz Rosenberg is the co-editor of the Writers and Artists Respond to L.M. Montgomery collection in the Journal of L.M. Montgomery Studies. She is also the author of House of Dreams: The Life of L.M. Montgomery (Candlewick Press), which has been translated into Czech, Chinese, Portuguese, and Romanian. She has written a biography of Louisa May Alcott, Scribbles, Sorrows, and Russet Leather Boots, as well as more than 25 novels, books of poetry, and books for young readers. She teaches English & Creative Writing at Binghamton University in upstate New York.
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Next week our tributes will celebrate Montgomery in the context of Canada’s Persons Day.