Читать книгу Blood of the Donnellys - David McRae - Страница 5

M y earliest memories of the Donnelly family came from my mother’s and father’s stories. From the late 1940s to the mid-1960s, our family lived in Clinton, Ontario. We made regular shopping excursions to London, Ontario, along Highway 4 through Lucan. It is in Lucan that the stories would begin. We made several side trips to view the Donnelly tombstone (the original) at St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church and took short drives up the Roman Line to locate the Donnelly farm.

I revisited the Donnelly Homestead in July 2000. I spent a very pleasant summer afternoon with J. Robert Salts, the current owner, as he recounted his experiences living at the Donnelly Homestead, which are vividly described in his book You Are Never Alone: Our Life on the Donnelly Homestead. I wish to thank Mr. Salts for his encouraging words of success on the publication of my novel and for his permission to use his name and the Donnelly Homestead in my story.

It is important that the history of the Donnelly family be told and told again. It is through these varied tellings that, hopefully, the tragic consequences of modern-day violent acts of prejudice and bullying afflicting many of our people today, young and old, may be addressed.