When Mary Mayer's great grandmother, together her children, left the old country, they left behind a life of grueling work in the coal industry. The previous generations were peasants who were expelled from the land and homes where their ancestors had lived and worked since Neolithic times for the benefit of those above them in the collectively accepted social order. After the banishment of the peasants from the land, the land was given over to sheep grazing. Consequently, most of the peasants' work was no longer needed, so there was little choice but to find jobs in one of the growing towns, for everyone in the family, because a man's earnings were too low to cover expenses charged and taken by employers for lodgings and food, so that women, pregnant or not, as well as children, including the youngest, were also obliged to work. Working hours were inhuman, not enough time was left for more than a few hours sleep and food, hardly in the form of decent meals, hurriedly eaten while on the job. Mary's great grandmother hauled coal out of the depths of the mine, uphill, with a wagon filled to the maximum harnessed onto her, while in the minds of the employers, she was no more than a filthy animal worthy of being whipped into more expedient action. She was bent over in the passageway that had a low ceiling, crawling and dragging with all her strength up the dark shaft, with her long skirt tucked up and tied around her waist. Her children were all in the lowest areas of the mine in tiny caves, chipping and removing the coal. Her husband worked above ground, taking coal from the wagons and loading it onto boats that would carry it along the canal water ways to distribution destinations all across the country. All the workers were utterly exhausted and undernourished. Safety was of no concern and accidents were rampant. Mary's great grandmother's husband was victim in one when the coal they were loading was of such weight that the back end of the lifter broke and buried her husband and two other men underneath. By the time they were covered in the heavy coal, they were unconscious, suffocated and soon died. The loading continued with other starving men willing to take over the job. Not a funeral was held. Mary's great grandmother found out from whispered gossip.
One unfortunate day there was a fire in the depths of the mine and the ceilings of the tiny caves for digging and the hauling shafts began to collapse. Everyone rushed out. An uncounted number asphyxiated or were trampled. Mary's great grandmother's children had to crawl over their co-workers' dead bodies. The children were nearly blinded by the outdoor light as they even slept underground. Two of children had died during the fire or for some other reason, but no one considered telling their mother was anything but unnecessary. Mary's great grandmother found her remaining five children, the first time she had seen them since they began working for the coal mine. They clung to her. With one in each hand and the others holding the ripped cloth of her skirt, they ran away. 'Better to starve together in the light, than starve in the belly of hell.' she thought. During their hungry wanderings, they found themselves at the port where the captain of a dilapidated ship was looking for sailors. She begged for a job, in return for only some daily food, for herself and her children. The captain felt sorry for her. He had only recently lost his wife and children to consumption and this ship was his first opportunity for making a better life. He took Mary's great grandmother and the children on board, where they all proved to be excellent workers, very grateful for the small meals, the opportunity to sit together while they ate, a place to sleep cuddled up together with each other and perhaps above all, to be outside and experience the vastness of the ocean, the sky and the life-giving sun. They went to Canada, where they decided to stay, and the captain continued his ocean-faring.
In the area of the Canadian north, where Mary's great grandmother and her children ended up, there was continuous strife between the new-coming settlers, who began busily clearing the land, often the first step being a controlled fire, then creating fields in the areas of new ground uncovered, enclosed with fences, constructing cabins and all other activities associated with organizing the new colony venerating the royal class that remained in the old country. Laws of the old country, including the most important - the legalization of land ownership -, were adopted and fought for. The natives saw their hunting grounds and the lush forest supporting their sources of game and food gathering, denied to them and their people being forced into less and less hospitable areas at gunpoint, having to abide by laws that were foreign to their way of life. The Neolithic revolution versus hunting and gathering recurring again and again. Two of Mary's great grandmother's girls were taken by natives, which was not uncommon in those days. Two girls taken for two girls the natives lost in the skirmish of battle. The two sisters taken were not treated as slaves but as adopted daughters. They were young enough that the memories of their former lives faded and they came to believe they were native. When they were grown up, the older girl became the wife of a neighbouring chief's son, and the younger, who became Mary's grandmother, married a white man from the nearby outpost. He was a baker and she worked with him, creating the community's daily bread. Mary's grandmother gave birth to nine children but only one grew to womanhood. Over time, the baker and Mary's grandmother established a successful bakery which eventually fell to Mary's mother's management, while Mary's father worked felling timber. Mary's mother, like Mary's grandmother, gave birth many times but it was only Mary, the last born, who survived childhood. Tragically Mary's father died in an icy river, while moving from log to log, guiding the timber to the processing plant, he slipped underneath the tightly packed, floating logs and drowned.
