When I Was Young and In My Prime (28 page)

oh
             
you took
         
the train
         
did you?

(
nodding
) It's a nice day—a good day for a train ride. I like to choose a seat by the window and read a book.

and look up
     
out the
     
window
         
now and then?

Yes.

you better go then
           
the train won't

(silence)

Wait for me?

yes

Acknowledgements

The opening quotation from Jan Zwicky is from
Songs for Relinquishing the Earth,
Brick Books, 1998, page 13, used by her kind permission.

The passages on pages 39, 57 and 76 are from Alzheimer:
A Canadian Family Resource Guide
by Lori Kociol and Myra Schiff, McGraw Hill, 1989, pages 10 to 12. Used by permission of the authors.

The entries on page 89 are from
Mind Your Manners: A Complete Dictionary of Etiquette for Canadians
, by Claire Wallace, edited by Joy Brown, Harlequin Books, 1953.

Passages on pages 7, 8, 18, 19 and 240 are inspired by (and in some cases are modified quotations from) the diaries of Peter and Mary Papky.

The line referenced on page 64 is from
Once in Europa
by John Berger.

Thank you to the Ontario Arts Council and the Toronto Arts Council for financial support during the writing of this book. Thanks also to the Banff Centre for the Arts.
 

Parts of this book appeared (sometimes in slightly different form) in the
Malahat Review, Geist
and
Breathing Fire 2: Canada's New Poets;
my thanks to the editors of these publications.

Many people read and supported versions of this book (and of me) along the way. Thanks in particular to Kelly Aitken, Michelle Cameron, Kirsten Corson, Degan Davis, Scott McLoughlin-Marratto, Don McKay, Jeremy Munce, Liz Philips, Alison Pick, Johanne Pulker, Joyce Redford (for her example of faithfulness), Jo Roberts, Doug Raisbeck, David Seymour, Sue Sinclair, Suzannah Smith, Alana Wilcox, the generous souls of Brick Books (Stan Dragland, Marnie Parsons and others) and the good people I wrote with in writing groups over the years. And thank you to Silas White and Kathy Sinclair at Nightwood Editions for, among other wonders, their trust in me.

I'd also like to thank all of the characters who appear in this book: friends, family, passing acquaintances and strangers, naked, in costume, in disguise, in the wings. Sometimes main characters show up as extras, walk-ons as stars. In all cases, the portraits are necessarily partial, because of our boundlessness and in service to the whole. My gratitude for all of you. As my grandmother used to say when she was losing her mind and needed a phrase that would fit any occasion, it takes all kinds.

Finally, this book is for my father, Greg Munce (1946-2002). Though he does not appear directly in these pages, he's behind every one.
 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alayna Munce has been published in various Canadian literary journals and in
Breathing Fire 2: Canada's New Poets
(Nightwood). She is a past winner of the CBC Literary Awards and a three-time winner of
Grain
magazine's Short Grain Contest.

Alayna Munce grew up in Huntsville, Ontario, and now lives in Toronto.