Every time a baby is born, a new grandmother is born.
Someone said that to Nanaimo author Carol Matthews before her first granddaughter was born and the words stuck with her. She's launching her first book The First Three Years of a Grandmother's Life with a reading and music by Rick Scott 3 p.m. at St. Paul's Anglican Church Hall on Sunday, which is Grandparents Day.
I didn't really know I was writing a book, she said, of how she decided to start writing. "I'd advise anyone wanting to write a book that a great way to start is to accept any invitation to write a regular column."
Matthews writes for the Relational Journal of Child and Youth Care, published out of Ryerson University.
She was the dean of human services programs at Malaspina and the editor of the journal used to be a faculty member at the Nanaimo school. When she was asked to start writing about four years ago Matthews didn't know what she would base her column on, her new granddaughter would provide inspiration .
"I wasn't sure what I would write about but I had just had a grandchild and I decided to write a column about my experiences as a new grandmother," she said. "It's a learning experience for the grandmother. These were my first three years of a new relationship."
Matthews wasn't a stranger to writing before she started the column. She had done her masters in English at the University of Victoria and had articles published on the grandmother figure in literature. She also has a collection of short stories coming with Oolichan Books in the spring called Incidental Music.
"I had an academic notion of what a grandmother was but I found I really had a lot to learn about what the relationship was, how the relationship changed with my daughter," she said. "It's been lots of fun and quite challenging and I feel like I've learned a lot over the past three years."
The column, which comes out every three months, is written like a journal following the young girl's life. Matthews writes about things the infant was doing and how they affected her and the rest of the growing family. Topics such as moods and development and environment are covered.
She also illustrated the book with line drawings of the girl. Matthews said she was surprised when her editor approached her about making the columns into a book.
"People had told me they liked them but I hadn't thought of doing anything with them," she said. "They've said there's not very much written on grandparenting and the demographics are such now that there's a lot of first time grandparents out there.
"I hope it will serve as a record of how important she is to me," Matthews added.
"One day there may be a column about what Charlotte said when she reads the book."
A dollar from the sale of each book will go to Adrianne Dartnall and Rick Lennert, a couple who work with homeless children and grandmothers in Cambodia. Partial proceeds from the launch will go to the Nan-Go Grannies.
The book will be available at the launch and at the Malaspina bookstore.