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Rooted and Remembered book launch
October 23 @ 7:00 pm - 9:30 pm
Tonight, August 23, 2024 is the book launch – Rooted and Remembered
Come meet story keeper, James Carruthers and local novelist CJ Frederick. They will describe how they brought this special family history to the printed page.
Topic: Lest We Forget Ellwyne Ballantyne.
Time: Oct 23, 2024 07:00 PM America/Toronto
Join Zoom Meeting or come to the Archives. Join the zoom call at 6:55 p.m. so we can settle in for a 7 pm. start.
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88548582065?pwd=VEZTIFxIdFbcMmHozRsa4wL4dTYg8N.1
Meeting ID: 885 4858 2065
Passcode: 459615
CJ and James hope that Ellwyne’s story and his connection with the Carruthers clan touches people with its message of love, faith, and remembrance. It’s only through storytelling that those who carry memories, and decide to share them, make history come to life.
MAKING HISTORY COME TO LIFE THROUGH STORYTELLING
Listen to CJ tell about how she became intrigued with this story and how she collaborated with James Carruthers, the grandson of Betsy Jane Carruthers, during the pandemic to write a ‘creative non-fiction’ book about this wonderful young man, Ellwyne. Link to Interview starts at 9 minutes.
CJ’s First Novel – her story: Stories ripple all around us, if only we’re willing to hear them. In 2012, CJ first learned of Ellwyne Ballantyne and the astonishing relationship he forged with two strangers after reading a short newspaper article about the dedication of an unusual tree to a long-dead soldier from World War One. With obligations to work and family filling her time, she wasn’t yet ready to hear his story. It took a global pandemic, with the prospect of lockdowns and unexpected forced time at home, to open her ears, mind, and heart and be ready to explore the roots of Ellwyne’s story that took place more than a century before.
CJ grew up in the 1980s in a wood-framed farmhouse built by Scottish settlers, situated on a dead-end road that terminates near the winding Sydenham River. In 2000, this road was renamed from a numbered concession to Buttonwood Drive. The name reflects the stand of buttonwood trees gathered at the river’s edge, where they most comfortably grow.
In 2020, she began reflecting on the fallen soldier and his extraordinary buttonwood tree that grows near her childhood home. Her curiosity eventually led her to the doors of Carruthers clan descendants, where she begged to have a conversation about Ellwyne and his connection to the tree. Thinking it might have the makings of a short story, she began putting together the pieces of Ellwyne Ballantyne’s brief life. But, with each photograph, letter, and artifact shared, she became more engrossed in the tale of an orphan who had stepped foot on three continents and was taken in by strangers who came to love him as their own. At the outset, CJ did not anticipate that it would bloom into a novel, but as she learned more details about the characters and events, she believed that each nugget was fascinating and intriguing.
Join Zoom Meeting – more details
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88548582065?pwd=VEZTIFxIdFbcMmHozRsa4wL4dTYg8N.1
Meeting ID: 885 4858 2065
Passcode: 459615
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Meeting ID: 885 4858 2065
Passcode: 459615