The Wonder of It All

The Wonder of It All by Donna Metcalfe

When blustery winter winds howl outside in January, Grandpa Metcalfe sits down at his magnificent rolltop desk. It sits in the corner of the big kitchen between two windows. One window faces down the laneway towards the mailbox, and the other one faces the garden and barnyard….

A big, solid, but comfy chair faces the desk. I love to sit there and pretend to write.

The rambling brick house at the end of the Sixth Line of Ramsay was home to the large Metcalfe family. Mother, Dad, and nine children would “rise with the chickens” and tackle the never-ending demands of life on a farm in the 1950s and ’60s. Mother would divide her energies between cooking and providing for her growing brood and tending her gardens – her true love. Dad would head out to the fields, at first using horses, until the old 1020 tractor came along. Tasks changed with the seasons, from tapping the maples to canning the garden harvest to keeping the home fires burning. To Donna, it was all wonderful.

This collection of short stories is a gentle journey through imagination and memory to the recent past. To a place close by, that readers will want to return to, again and again.

ISBN: 978-1-77257-361-9 (PB)