Kate’s Ring

Kate’s Ring, by Donna Grassby, is a well-written, grittily realistic story set in 1925-6 Cape Breton about a 13-year-old girl taking on adult responsibilities in a dysfunctional family. Many readers may find that their own problems pale in comparison to Kate’s. Other readers, those with challenges in their lives to do with family, will read this book and feel they are not alone. They may even gain some insights into their situation.

The eldest of six children, ranging in age from thirteen to two, Kate loves her mother very much. During her infancy, she and her mother and father lived with her father’s parents on a farm in the Margaree region of Cape Breton where her mother thrived on the casual outdoor life. When her father decided that farming didn’t suit him, the family moved to her mother’s home town, Whitney Pier. The story opens with a pleasant ride in Poppa’s bakery delivery van on Kate’s thirteenth birthday. Soon Kate tells readers, though, that:

[E]ever since Mamma had come down with consumption more than a year ago, worry lines crept across his brow. Mamma was in and out of hospital and Poppa had started drinking a lot of liquor. My five siblings and I did without food, shoes, warm mitts and firewood so that he could drink. I wanted to help Mamma and Poppa in the worst way, but didn’t know how.

The front cover blurb on Kate’s Ring calls the novel “a modern day Anne of Green Gables”, but this comparison is far-fetched. Neither novel is “modern”, though Anne, set in the 19th century, and Kate’s Ring, set in 1925-6 are both worthwhile reading for 21st century young readers. Anne Shirley, an orphan with no relatives, has an innocence, charm and affinity to nature that transform her adoptive household and Prince Edward Island community. At the beginning of Donna Grassby’s novel, Kate feels that she has too much family - not only her needy siblings, but also her tragically troubled parents and aunts, uncles and two grandmothers, whose concern for her parents’ predicament seems like interference.

Kate’s help with the housework and moral support for her mother result in her missing school and falling behind, yet she wants to help, knowing that the doctors have let her mother out of hospital only on condition that she take it easy. When Mamma and Poppa (who lost his job due to a binge) decide to go back to live on the farm with his parents, Mamma’s sister, Aunt Flora wants Kate to stay with her and go on with her schooling.

At the beginning of the novel, Kate’s loyalty to her parents is total. She accepts their opinions, for instance, their contention that Aunt Flora is a troublemaker, whose disapproval outweighs her help. Mamma claims, “Your father never hurts a soul when he’s drinking.”

Kate’s best friend, Grace, seeing Kate torn as to whether to go to the farm or stay in Whitney Pier, tells her that she can’t do anything about her father’s drinking and suggests that Aunt Flora doesn’t sound mean but rather seems to be on Kate’s side.

Kate, like most girls her age, likes jewellery and envies Grace’s opal ring. The ring that Kate finally gets, though given to her with love, is unsuitable for her and is too big, like the caregiving role which she has had thrust upon her.

Though worried as to whether her family can get along without her, Kate stays in town where her Aunt Flora and Uncle Will’s good qualities manifest themselves. In January 1926, however, Kate gets a letter from her paternal grandmother, Aigneis, saying that Mamma misses her terribly and that Kate’s presence would improve Mamma’s state of mind.

At the farm, Kate enjoys the simpler life there and learns from Aigneis how to spin wool into yarn. A kitchen party (ceilidh), with fiddling, dancing and storytelling, is a memorable event that winter. But when Kate’s mother starts hemorrhaging blood, Poppa and the children take her back to Whitney Pier for medical attention. When Mamma’s sisters and brothers-in-law meet the train, Kate’s parents take offence at something that was said and order them to stay away from them.

In the last third of Kate’s Ring, Kate is severely tested, not only by having to care for the younger children in a shack, but also by her mother’s deteriorating physical and mental condition and tragic death. The hardest thing for Kate to accept is that she is not a superwoman and cannot do the impossible. It is this message that will resonate with readers of today, particularly those facing tough circumstances and decisions.

The novel rings with authenticity, both in dialogue and in geographic and historic detail. In an interview at the book’s conclusion, Donna Grassby says that Kate’s Ring is based on her mother’s life, and that when her mother read the manuscript, she said, “That’s the way it was.” These experiences are now transformed into a work of art.