The Surprise of My Life: An Autobiography

303 Pages·1998·28.3 MB·English

by  Claire Drainie Taylor

Life Writing Series / 5
Life Writing Series
In the Life Writing Series, Wilfrid Laurier University Press publishes
life writing and new life-writing criticism in order to promote autobio-
graphical accounts, diaries, letters and testimonials written and/or told
by women and men whose political, literary or philosophical purposes are
central to their lives. Life Writing features the accounts of ordinary
people, written in English, or translated into English from French or the
languages of the First Nations or from any of the languages of immigra-
tion to Canada. Life Writing will also publish original theoretical investi-
gations about life writing, as long as they are not limited to one author or
text.
Priority is given to manuscripts that provide access to those voices that
have not traditionally had access to the publication process.
Manuscripts of social, cultural and historical interest that are considered
for the series, but are not published, are maintained in the Life Writing
Archive of Wilfrid Laurier University Library.
Series Editor
Marlene Kadar
Humanities Division, York University
The Surprise of
My Life
An Autobiography
A
CLAIRE DRAINIE TAYLOR
with a Foreword by Marlene Kadar
Wilfrid Laurier University Press
THE CANADA COUNCIL LE CONSEIL DBS ARTS
FOR THE ARTS DU CANADA
SINCE 1957 DEPUIS 1957
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts for our
publishing program.
We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada
through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program for our
publishing activities.
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Taylor, Claire Drainie, 1917-
The surprise of my life : an autobiography
(Life writing; v. 5)
ISBN 0-88920-302-4
1. Taylor, Claire Drainie, 1917- . 2. Actresses -
Canada - Biography. 3. Radio writers - Canada -
Biography. I. Title. II. Series.
PN2308.T39A3 1998 791'.092 C98-930839-1
Copyright © 1998
WILFRID LAURIER UNIVERSITY PRESS
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada N2L 3C5
Cover design by Leslie Macredie
Printed in Canada
All rights reserved. No part of this work covered by the copyrights
hereon may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means—
graphic, electronic, or mechanical—without the prior written permission
of the publisher. Any request for photocopying, recording, taping or
reproducing in information storage and retrieval systems of any part of
this book shall be directed in writing to the Canadian Reprography
Collective, 214 King Street West, Suite 312, Toronto, Ontario M5H 3S6.
Contents
Foreword by Marlene Kadar vii
Acknowledgements ix
Author's Note xi
The Beginning 1
Swift Current 9
And All the Other Places 39
Vancouver—First Marriage 49
Rock Bay 71
John Drainie Makes an Entrance 85
Life with John Ill
And the Children Came ... and Came ... and Came 159
Interlude 209
The Final Stretch 213
v
For my very dear children
who encouraged me to keep writing and for
my cherished grandchildren
Emily Pastor (In memory)
Angela Pastor
Michael Pastor
Gabriel Martin
Samuel Martin
Lauren Drainie
Alison Drainie
Alexandria Drainie Taylor
and their children
and
their children
and
their children
and
their children
and
their children
and
their children
and
their children
and
their children
etc.

Foreword
by Marlene Kadar
c laire Drainie Taylor's memoir, The Surprise of My Life:
An Autobiography, is a moving, intelligent and often
humorous account of a life lived to the fullest, a life
reflected upon by a narrator whose honesty and sensitivity draws the
reader into her story, a narrator whose memory for the details of her
childhood, her childbearing years, her children's lives is remarkable.
With her own busy career as a radio and television actor, she has
remained a loving mother, wife and grandmother, devoted to the preser-
vation of the family's legacy and the stories they have yet to tell.
Although married now to the Canadian film entrepreneur Nat Taylor,
The Surprise of My Life tells an earlier story, the story of her exciting
life with John Drainie, the celebrated Canadian actor with whom she
raised six children.
The memoir begins in Claire's childhood: born in Swift Current,
Saskatchewan, of Jewish parents, Claire remembers the joy and chaos of
life in her first family, a family which, though always living on the edge,
and despite setbacks, managed to survive. She recalls that her first love,
Jack Harrison Murray, with whom she eloped in 1934, was attracted to
this warmth and wanted it for himself.
vn