Leading a group of CGIT (Canadian Girls in Training, the United Church’s version of Girl Guides) with baby Heather on her knee, New Mills, NB, c. 1959

Outside the church on a Sunday morning, about 1967. Pam is in the background.

Being a minister’s wife was not easy.

It was life in a fishbowl, with everyone watching, and you couldn’t really be friends with people in the congregation as they would put the minister’s wife on a bit of a pedestal. Also, there were politics.

You’re playing a role, and there will be gossip, whether you do it well or not.

And your children had better behave in church.

What was worse, especially for her, was she couldn’t make her own decisions about paint and wallpaper in the house because the Manse Committee took care of that.