INNISFAIL - Californian Norma Jean Bennett still lovingly embraces the magic of growing up on her childhood Central Alberta farm.
For the past decade the 62-year-old writer has reached deep into her soul and given the magic back by turning her wondrous experiences into a trio of novels for her Norma Jean Mystery Series. Each book is set near the childhood farm 25 kilometres east of innisfail.
"I had decided I should be writing this stuff down," said Bennett, who still considers herself a proud Canadian despite living a current joyous life in Ojai, a small southern California city northwest of Los Angeles and east of Santa Barbara. "It took me a long time to finish the first one but it started 10 years ago, until I really figured out what I wanted to do and then I thought, 'I got an idea here and I am going to do a series.'"
That series included the books Norma Jean and the Mystery of the Suitcase in the Ditch, which is set in a ghost house near the old Innisfail-area family farm; Norma Jean and the Mystery of the Gypsy Summer, set in a cabin at Pine Lake; and Norma Jean and the Mystery of the Midnight Tea Party, set mainly at the Hill End Community Centre.
Bennett was born in Red Deer and raised by her parents Andy and Florence Nielsen on the Innisfail-area grain farm with five brothers and one sister. It wasn't until after high school graduation in 1975 when the magic paused for a taste of youthful freedom. She travelled through Europe for a few years, and then met the love of her life, American Roy Bennett, at age 26. They married, and ultimately settled in California. However, her heart always belonged to Canada, back at the old family farm. Every year she has come home to visit. One time she mustered the courage to knock on the door of her old house.
She told the new owners she used to live there and asked if she could look around. They said, "yes, of course."
"It was very kind of them," she said, noting there was once a tree fort down by the nearby swamp. "They had taken all the swamp and trees out. It was just unrecognizable. All the magic was taken away."
However, Bennett said while she's sad about the changes there was a way for her to find and preserve the magic of the past and all the timeless memories for her two daughters Megan and Bronwyn and two grandchildren.
She noted that when her family left Canada her daughters were just two and six years old, and growing up in a country that was "not their own." Bennett had a difficult time finding Canadian history content for them to learn about Canada. She then began telling them stories about Canadian history, life on the farm and her grandparents as she had heard and experienced.
"They were just things I remembered, and I would frame them all. I called them Nicky the Dog stories. He was the narrator, a black Lab. Each story was from his point of view," she said. "His stories became part of our family life and part of our history of who we were.
"It also really hit me that the family farm is quickly disappearing. I didn't recognize our family farm anymore," added Bennett. "I find it sad that we might forget. It's me just wanting to make sure we don't forget what it was like to be a Canadian rural farm family."
Before her novels Bennett was already a prolific playwright. To date she has written more than 50 plays, which are all history-based, including ones on artists, others focusing on religious subjects and themes, and ones for college classes.
She wrote her first book 10 years ago, and completed her last in 2017. She now has the outline for her fourth, with the setting once again at Pine Lake. Her outline is around the Indigenous culture. This idea came from what her parents did many years ago. They sponsored more than 200 families who came to Canada from Cambodia and Vietnam.
"At her (mother) funeral it was full of Asian people whose families had been helped by my parents," she said, noting her mother Florence, who passed away almost three years ago, had earned a Governor General's Award for her work with refugees.
"That is kind of a big thing right now in Canada," she said of the public's interest in issues around Canada's Indigenous people. "I thought I would look into the history of what kinds of things happened with Indigenous peoples in Central Alberta. I came across a battle at Ghost Pine Creek.
"We used to play at that creek when we were kids, row our boats down there and there was a big battle down there between the Cree and the Blackfoot, and so I am researching that now," said Bennett of her new project tentatively called Norma Jean and the Mystery of Ghost Pine Creek.
In between all the research and scribbling for her fourth novel, as well as her ongoing play writing, there will be more visits back to Central Alberta. She and husband Roy have a family cabin at Sylvan Lake. There are still many cousins to visit near Innisfail. Mostly though, the magic still calls.
"I still miss Canada and am grateful for the story, our story. May there never be a final page,” said Bennett.
For more on Norma Jean Bennett and her literary work visit her website at bennett-projects.com
