When Wanita Koczka retired in 2020 she expected to spend more time with her mother, Mary.
Then came COVID. The resulting restrictions limited the face-to-face interactions the two could have with each other. Then, in May 2021, Mary died.
Koczka never got to spend that time with her mother. Instead, she wrote a book about her: Courage and a Castle: A Tribute to a Remarkable Woman.
“It’s a relief to finally have it done,” said Koczka, a longtime resident of the Holbein area west of Prince Albert. “It’s been a labour of love. I think the actual writing of the book itself was cathartic for me.”
Koczka spent a year writing the book, followed by a year of revisions, and a year of working on it with her publisher. She had always wanted to write a book, and when it came time to choose a topic, her mother was a natural choice.
“She was a remarkable woman ahead of her time,” Koczka said.
“She faced many challenges in her life like injury to my father in her first year of marriage, (the) death of family members including sons that left a hole in her heart, and having to go to work when a working woman was not a thing in the ‘60s. The reader will see how her story develops through her life and hopefully from that they will also be inspired.”
Koczka didn’t just rely on her own memories while writing. She also listened to tape recordings of an interview her daughter conducted with her mother before she died.
She said the result is a somewhat unconventional memoir that made her appreciate her mother’s courage and resilience even more.
“One of her hallmark qualities was unconditional love, and what a gift that was,” Koczka said. “I came to appreciate more why she did some of the things in her life and how that made her a remarkable person and such a role model and an inspiration.”
Although writing the books was a cathartic experience, Koczka did worry about how her siblings would receive it. She said they all loved their mother, but Koczka was still anxious about their response.
“I think they understood that I was writing a book about mom from my perspective, and that their experiences with mom would certainly be different than mine, but the themes were all the same,” Koczka said. “They had the same appreciation for her unconditional love. They have the same appreciation for her resilience and her knowing and her making sure that the family was looked after and educated…. We have a common view and love of our mother, but our experiences with her are different. They agree that the things that I have written about certainly show the mother that we know and love.”
Koczka will be at the Margo Fournier Centre in Prince Albert on Thursday, Oct. 30 for a reading and book signing. The event runs from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Koczka also plans to host a reading in November at the Seniors Heritage Centre in Prince Albert but has not finalized a date.
Copies of Courage and a Castle are available at Amazon.ca, or at On the Avenue Art Gallery in Prince Albert. Copies will also be available for purchase as the book signing on Oct. 30.
@kerr_jas • jason.kerr@paherald.sk.ca
