
06/27/2025
Today we are sharing Linda Knight Seccaspina lovely article titled: Yesterday’s Papers Remind me of Home – about her experience at the Awards Gala. We thank her for her kind words!
"I apologize to my readers, but my column about Jos Louis and other Vachon products has been delayed by a week. All the way home from Montebello, Quebec my mind was mentally typing what I was going to say about the QCNA – Quebec Community Newspapers Assc. awards held on Friday the 13th. I was overjoyed representing The Sherbrooke Record with my weekly Thursday column. I have been writing for years and never thought that my thoughts about life and “days of the week underwear” were ever going to win over the likes of literary judges.
Somehow I won, and I got up on stage and screamed, “I can write, I can write!” (Cue Sally Fields Oscar acceptance speech here) But to me it was an amazing celebration for years and years of writing. To all those that write and think differently, never give up. One day when you wonder why you bother to write someone is going to contact you and say,
Hey, can I print that?
I have written 6 books the past decade, but it was not the way for me to go. I am not Louise Penny, who writes best sellers. I am Linda Knight Seccaspina, who writes about daily life, nostalgia and stories that people from my past worry about. Some honestly think I am writing about them. Of course I am!
One day Barbara Heath, the senior editor of the Townships Sun contacted me. She emailed me about a story I wrote about the rumoured 30-foot- long monster called Gog, Manaloo, Memphre, or the Lake Monster of Lake Memphremagog. Somehow she had seen it on Facebook and asked if the Townships Sun could run it. Since I had spent the first night of my honeymoon looking out the motel window which faced Lake Memphremagog searching for that creature; it was a story that was near and dear to my heart. To be truthful I think it was the main reason I insisted we stay there.
And so, as they say, began the online friendship of Linda and Barbara. I had been writing for years in the States for publications about celebrities, murders and pets and she assured me that history and humour was my thing, and she was right. Barbara encouraged me to keep writing with my heart, and to pursue my potential. It’s not like I needed anyone to encourage my prolific writing, but, even though we were the same age, it was like someone putting their arm around you. It was always that way between us. She represented a part of my self-identity and encouraged my craziness.
We both believed in saving heritage like the Tomifobia church which is a short distance from Stanstead, Quebec. The poor wee church was sold and abandoned for years and it left a mark on both of our hearts. She was a fighter like myself and we both stood up for the wrongs in our communities. Barbara with the closing of the CIBC in Stanstead and me with stormwater management ponds and supporting local business in Carleton Place, ON. It didn’t matter how slowly we now moved along, we just had to make sure we didn’t stop. Neither of us kept our feelings in a drawer to be forgotten.
I was heartbroken when she passed in 2021 and I should have known her health wasn’t getting better. That March she sent me two beautiful jewellery artifacts that belonged to her mother. She said in a letter,
“I hope they bring you joy and show your spirit. You are certainly a valuable member of the Sun Family.”
Life just wasn’t the same without Barbara, and Matthew McCully sent me an email asking if I wanted to write a column for The Sherbrooke Record a few years ago. If you grew up in the Eastern Townships The Sherbrooke Record is part of your life like Selby Lake, Bolton Pass, the Granby Zoo and “patates avec sauce”. When I was a child, The Montreal Star, The Sherbrooke Daily Record and the Granby Leader Mail were the voice, the must-haves, in each household. At first I wrote a monthly column and then after a columnist left I was promoted to every Thursday on Page 2.
Writing this column has always been my life connection to where I was born and raised. It reminds me that my original home still exists. Can you ever go back home? Well, each season has a memory just like the columns I write. The fact that something is still around in some form somewhere means I don’t have to trade my tomorrow for a single yesterday. Even an old photograph can make memories linger in your mind like a photograph of the McClatchie Grocery store on South Street in Cowansville. When I look at that photo I am still standing beside that wooden counter inside, feeling the sunshine on my face, and holding my grandmother’s hand waiting for the brown-papered package wrapped in twine. Nothing is ever really lost to us as long as we just remember, and that’s what I try to do in most of my columns.
On Friday I met what I call a wealth of community newspaper writers. The Nunatsiaq News from Nunavut, and the Nunavik territory of Quebec grabbed me at the heart, and I cannot stop talking about them. Here is an area that has more issues than any other area put together. Instead of harping at local officials with nasty headlines; the newspaper tries to work with the leaders, and the community to try and solve issues. I repeat, they try to solve issues together unlike farther south in Quebec where every newspaper seems to have local leaders calling them complaining about the online vitriol they endure. Did you know that 25% of those who ran for municipal office 3 years ago have quit? I also met Bonnie James, who does the Editorials at the Pontiac Journal. A fighter for what is right, and does not mince her editorial words. Yesterday, she was my latest hero among the others I met last weekend that write for community newspapers.
Next week dear readers you can look forward to a column about our favourite corner store cake treats. But, remember, there is no place like home, no matter where you live, and when I heard the Hotel bellboy yell “OUI, OUI, OUI” to a customer I smiled.
I was back in Quebec, ma belle province.
Je me souviens…..
To Sharon McCully, Matthew and the staff Sherbrooke Record. Knowing that you believe in me makes all the difference. To everyone else my motto is: “Keep on writing!!”