an unexpected story... The Black Dress

I was given this book to read by a trusted colleague, who, on observing my work challenges, suggested I might relate to the description...a book about suffering and strength, religion and rebellion, love and anger. Many months later, I picked it up and started reading The Black Dress, by Pamela Freeman. It is a convincing story about Mary MacKillop, based on historical facts, of the eldest daughter of a Scottish immigrant catholic family in the mid 1800's. Alexander MacKillop left Scotland to join the seminary in Rome, but opted instead to become a god-fearing farmer in country Victoria, alongside his well educated wife Flora, who grew up in the foothills of the highest mountain in Scotland. We experience life from the perspective of Marie Ellen who experiences her father's educational aspirations while also feeling abandoned as he leaves the family and generally opts out of his paternal responsibilities. She experiences her mother's fatalistic 'god will provide' acceptance of their resultant poverty and as a reader we also have an insight into her personal anger, which would never have been appropriate at that time. The underlying question is the extent to which she can ultimately forgive her father, while carrying forward his religious fervour for her own life as an unconventional nun. Mary was clearly an independent thinker whose actions have had a lasting impact on rural children's education in Australia.