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Nonagenarian author looks back at family life in latest book

Author Patricia Stanyer’s latest venture is a familiar affair. A Time To Remember chronicles the joys and trials (at times) of family life and later adventures and travels.
stanyer
Author Patricia Stanyer’s latest venture is a familiar affair.

Author Patricia Stanyer’s latest venture is a familiar affair.

A Time To Remember chronicles the joys and trials (at times) of family life and later adventures and travels.

“This narrative is about raising a family while working in the teaching profession,” says the 92-year-old author. “Someone remarked that if you weren’t funny when you started raising a family, you would get funny. There was little time in my busy life for writing, but the copies of letters that I wrote to my parents and others provided me with many family stories.”

The long-standing educator and writer began her publishing career in 1981 when she edited her mother’s book, A Good Time Was Had By All. The following year she published a genealogy of her husband Raymond’s family entitled Hewers of Stone.

In 1988 she published a nurse’s story called Try The Goose Grease. A venture into publishing sports magazines began with the World Cup soccer tournament in 1993 with her two sons being the chief writers. The venture ended in 1994 when their hockey magazine could not be distributed due to the hockey strike.

Under the company name Tabour Publishing, Stanyer published her brother Reg’s books, Close To The Heart and To The Folks, and in 2005 she collaborated with Reg in a book about their father, The Legendary Big Jim Pendergrast.

In all, more than 10,000 books have been distributed and sold by the small publishing company in the past 35 years.

“Because of my better than average education I was able to work at teaching and raise a family of five children. Consequently, we also had extras like trips to ski hills, sports and piano lessons,” she says.

“When I started publishing I was reminded at bookstores that they could sell more books about British Columbia, therefore I have attempted to describe the areas in which I have lived in the province. I have been fortunate in having had a good husband and children who have accomplished much in their lives. They have encouraged me to write about my life.”

A Time To Remember is available in South Delta at Black Bond Books in Ladner and Albany Books in Tsawwassen.