NEWS & EVENTS
FAMILY NEWS
Antigonish, NS, January 2009: Minna (Millar) Halloran, fourth of the six Millar children, dies at the age of 80.
Minna is greatly missed by her four remaining brothers and sisters. Until her health necessitated a move to a
nursing home in Antigonish, Minna lived in the Afton, NS. She was in the white house across from St. Matthew’s
United Church that her parents, George and Ruth Millar, had retired to in 1960.
READINGS & VISITS
Hamilton, ON, January, 2009: Ruth reads from A Watch in the Night and discusses the book with approximately 200 students in
Grades 5-8 at St. Margaret Mary School in Hamilton. Later, she does the same thing at St. Joseph School. “I really enjoyed
sharing the book and talking with the students. I think we could have gone on for hours.”
Mount Forest, ON, July, 2009: Ruth visits the Mount Forest Book Club to read and discuss A Watch in the Night.
ADVENTURES
Bayfield, NS, May, 2009: Ruth gets in a kayak for the first time and paddles over to Pomquet Island –
accompanied by her new friends, the Hamelins, who are experienced kayakers and canoists. “We were having a wonderful
exploration when we realized the wind was whipping up the water and we needed to head for shore. It brought home to me
the vagaries of island living, which I’d written about but not really experienced.”
New Glasgow, NS, May 2009: Ruth spends a few days in New Glasgow – and other parts of Nova Scotia –
researching Book Number Two. “I love research because you never know what you’re going to turn up.” She dug through archives, f
ound some great photographs, looked through old newspapers and interviewed people. “Talking to these women about their experiences
nearly 70 years ago was a real eye opener, too.”