Lögberg-Heimskringla - 13.07.1990, Blaðsíða 4

4 • Lögbeig - Heimskringla • Föstudagur 13. júlí 1990
Whatever happened to
Betty Jane?
Betty Jane Wylie received the Jubilee Award at Fall Convocation at the same ceremony
that honoured Adele Wiseman, BA/49, with an honourary degree. Here, the award
winners pose with friends and relatives. L to R: Rose Parker, Addie Penner, Betty Jane
Wylie, Adele Wiseman and brother Harry Wiseman.
by Mary Lile Benham
“I bill myself as Canada’s professional
widow,” laughs Betty Jane Wylie, 1989
recipient of the Alumni Jubilee Award.
Professional widow? Certainly not a
type-cast lugubrious female nor a giddy
Franz Lehar Merry Widow. Here is a dy-
namic engaging woman with a constantly
positive, down-to-earth attitude to life. Here
is the courage, imagination and faith to
accept some of the dirty deals life hands
out and turn them into winners.
When Bill Wylie died suddenly sbdeen
years ago, Betty Jane’s aching over-
whelming grief did not manifest itself in
futile hand-wringing. She rolled up her
sleeves and wrote her first book, Begin-
nings-ABookfor Widows. Thebookstruck
an international chord and was eventually
published in six countries. It has gone into
countless print-runs and three editions.
Her other self-help books for women are:
The Survival Guide for Widows ~U.S. edi-
tion of Beginnings), Successfully Single,
Every Woman’s Money Book (with Lynne
MacFarlane), The Best is Yet to Come and
All in the Family.
Being Canada’s professional widow is
only one tiny facet of that gem of purest
ray serene which is Betty Jane Wylie.
1989 was a transition year for her. Ac-
cording to Stats/Can she is one of thevery
few Canadians who has actually made a
living as a free-lance writer. Now she feels
she can finally afford to emphasize her
literaiy longings—writing fiction, poetry
and, above all, plays.
Over twenty years ago Wylie wrote
puppet plays for the Junior League of
Winnipeg and was subsequently invited
to be a script consultant to the Puppet
Players of America. She happily did this
volunteer job for seven years and had to
give it up when her husband died and she
was faced with supporting herself and her
children.
In 1980 Black Moss Press published
seven of her puppet plays with her own
introductions discussing puppetry as a
theatre art and a training ground for de-
velopmentasaplaywright. In 1977 The Old
Woman and the Pedlar was first per-
formed—a play in which the star is actu-
ally upstaged by a puppet who has “all the
lines.” Actually since 1962 she has had
many plays produced including musicals,
chamber opera, a “soap”, children’s thea-
tre, adaptations and straight drama.
The fourth play by Wylie, to be pro-
duced in Waterloo, Iowa, Veranda, pre-
miered injanuary 1990.This play is based
on memories of her grandparents in Gimli,
Manitoba. It is about all pioneering fami-
lies, particularly Icelandic, in Canada.
A lead-in to more plays from this pro-
lific pen was Wylie’s sojoum at Radcliffe
College as a Fellow of the Bunting Institute,
the Radcliffe Research and Study Center.
Of the 630 applicants last year, 40 were
accepted. To be one of these lucky re-
search students was like having a wealthy
maiden aunt - “Are you sure you have
everything you need, dear?” .. You have
your own office. Magic cards are issued
which enable you to plug into fabulous
libraries and get your hot little hands on
restricted material such as long-ago un-
published diaries and joumals.
Wylie’s next book is to be on women’s
use of diaries as therapy, self-expression
and recreation. She attended a weekly
seminar at Radcliffe at which each mem-
ber produced a joumal entry of her own
for criticism. This entails savage pre-class
self-editing—extremely valuable. Wylie
says this rich foundation in Cambridge
and Boston will influence her direction
and give her material on which she can
feed for years— nutrition for piquant meals
of drama, poetry and fiction.
She says, “I am thrilled to receive the
Alumni Award from my own university -
an important award at an important time
in my career path.” Among other awards
she has received was one for Victorian
Sfiice, a drama series on CBC
Morningside.
She has presented a complete collec-
tion of her published material to the Uni-
versity of Manitoba Archives. In 1949, as
UMSU Social Chairman she commis-
sioned Bamey Charach to take pictures at
University dances.That led to his contract
for Convocation pictures which he has
had ever since!
Everything Wylie writes is formed by
her thoughtful insight into her own ex-
periences—told with wit, compassion and
wisdom—to help readers to deal with their
own difficulties.
For instance, her son Matthew is
leaming disabled. Wylie has spent hours
and h our s of her life helping him to beco me
independent Once, when he was in hos-
pital, she wrote “Every day you pray for
strength and you meditate and you build
your reserves. And then every day you go
to the hospital and you spend all that
strength. I was strong and full of strength
for Matt each day, and then, on the way
out of the building I would deflate, so
drained and helpless and full of pain my-
self I would wonder how I would get
through the next day.” The next day she
would do it all again. And Matthew got
better.The flash news is that Matthew has
just landed his fir st competitive job - with
IBM.
She took the pain and the sorrow and
the meditation and the strength and wove
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Although she has always been awriter,
sandwiching plays and poetiy in between
puttingtogether peanutbutter sandwiches
for four hungry ltids, the great bulk of her
output has been accomphshed since her
husband died. As well as plays and poetry
she has written cookbooks, non-fiction
books, hundreds of magazine articles and
two unusual newspaper investigative re-
ports—The Old Lady Cafier and The Psy-
cho Triþ. WyUe took the amount of money
a single woman, over 65, would have, with
no other resources and Uved in a rooming
house in the east end of Toronto for three
weeks. For the latter story she described
in six articles her experiences masquer-
ading as an ex-mental patient, living in a
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boarding house in a district of Toronto
floodedwithex-mentalpatients. (Because
of this series, she was invited to act on a
commission sponsored by the Ontario
PubUc Service Employees’ Union, to in-
vestigate the cutbacks in mental health
careinOntario.) Hersuggestionsforthese
two series were greeted by the editors
with initial incredulity, accepted reluc-
tantly and when finished the deUghted
editors printed them as a red-hot success.
When you read the Ust of WyUe’s
spealdng engagements, you think, “Hey,
this woman has a clone. Surely no one
woman could do them all!” But she does.
She appears on every podium— pretty, a
little breathless perhaps, and speaks with
sagacity, soul and salt.
She has done her volunteer bit for the
cultural community in various organiza-
tions—Playwrights’ Union, ACTRA,
CAPAC, PEN, etc. 1988-89 she chaired
The Writers’ Union of Canada. She made
apointofgettingtoeverycityfromVictoria
to St John’s to meet with as many of the
700 Union membersas shepossibly could,
malting sure they all felt a part of the
Union whether they were able to attend
AGMs or not. She bought and read many
Canadian Books, met many interesting
people and, of course, found the whole
experience “thoroughly enriching.”
WyUe has had other interesting work-
related travels such as—to the universities
in the four Scandinavian countries and
once, as a guest of the Danish Academy,
to stay in Rungstedlund, the Blixen/
Dinesen castle.
Here is a player who is never warming
the bench—a goal-achiever who is never
unpleasantly aggressive. Behind all the
incredible accompUshments is a practis-
ing Christian—a woman who says, “The
only evil is not loving enough.”
We salute you, Betty Jane WyUe.
Courtesy ofthe Alumni Joumal, the Uni-
versity of Manitoba, Winter 1990.
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