Missionaries in China
ME: How do you suppose your model for motherhood was influenced by the fact that your parents were missionaries in China?
[My maternal great-grandparents went to China as Presbyterian missionaries. My grandmother Grace met my grandfather Jesse in China where he was also a missionary.]
MOM: The fact that they had led such unusual lives broadened my sense of possibility. Remember, I came became a mother in the shadow of the ’50s. The fact that my parents had led these adventuresome lives before I was born just made it feel to me as if you can have a family and take some risks. My parents had crossed the Pacific and gone to wild places with small children.
photo credit: Pearl Buck Foundation
Next: Pearl Buck
♦◊♦
A nice article. We are the same age, Tom. My mother did not join the feminist movement and revolutions of the 60s. My father was dean of a law school and very establishment-oriented, and she devoted herself to support of his career. Instead she subconsciously channeled her objections to the patriarchal system through me – and my father made me his intellectual ally and friend because my mother could not – or would not – relate to him on that level. So I see some parallels in growing up in revolutionary times, which in some sense continue today. I too… Read more »
I loved this interview. My mother’s parents were Presbyterian missionaries to Cuba. When I was 9, my family lived In Mexico and I remember my mother putting Pearl Buck’s The Good Earth in my hand and telling me how much she identified with her, for the love of adventure, the giving to others, the religious background, and the fact that both were adoptive mothers.
And about your mother–she sounds like a fascinating woman and it’s remarkable what she accomplished given the fact that she often felt depressed and isolated. Thanks for sharing her with us.
Very cool Pauline. Thanks for reading. Glad we have that Presbyterian missionarie blood in common…