Gone to an Aunt's
Remembering Canada's Homes for Unwed Mothers
Thirty or forty years ago, everybody knew what that phrase meant: a girl or a young, unmarried woman had gotten herself pregnant. She was “in trouble.” She had brought indescribable shame on herself and her family. In those days it was unthinkable that she would have her child and keep it. Instead she had to hide. Most likely she would be sent away to a home for unwed mothers, where she would stay in secrecy until her baby was born and given up for adoption. “Gone to an aunt’s” was the usual cover story, a fiction that everyone understood but no on talked about –until now.
In Gone to an Aunt’s, journalist and long-time television host Anne Petrie takes us back…
$7.99
April 9, 2013
The host of CBC Newsworld’s “Talk TV,” which airs each weekday, Anne Petrie has been a television and radio broadcaster for more than twenty years. Before joining Newsworld in 1989, she was the award-winning host of CBC Radio’s “3’s Company” in Vancouver and anchored the popular “24 Hours Late Night” at CBC-TV in Winnipeg. She has been a regular contributor to and guest host for programs such as “Morningside,” “Midday,” “The Journal,” and “National Magazine.”
Anne Petrie is the author of three earlier books: Ethnic Vancouver, Vancouver Secrets, and More Vancouver Secrets. She now lives in Calgary.