Bay Gals take care of book club virgin

They were ready for me - 10 women from ‘The Bay Gals 50 Plus Creating New Friends’ book club. They'd all read my book, The Golden Daughter; they all had their questions ready; and they were all eager to talk.

I was nervous. It was my first book club session, and I didn't quite know what to expect. I needn't have worried.

What a great time we all had. The questions were thoughtful and the discussions were heartfelt, with many of the women sharing their own experiences as daughters and as mothers.

They were generous in their praise for The Golden Daughter. As women, we all ‘got’ the intricacies of mother-daughter relationships. We also had a good discussion about the burden and the power of intergenerational trauma, another theme in the book.

And we lamented that what happened to my mother during WW2 under the fascist regime of the Nazis is still playing out in parts of the world today.

I'd just like to express a very public 'thank you' to my hosts. The 'Bay Gals 50 Plus Creating New Friends Group' are women who live around St. Margaret’s Bay in Nova Scotia, all dedicated to creative pursuits (painting, writing, crafts), passionate about making new friends - and all very welcoming to a book club virgin. This was just one of their book clubs; I hope very much that I will get to talk to the others as well.