Adrienne Clarkson, Heart Matters: A Memoir, 2006 and Room for All of Us: Surprising Stories of Loss and Transformation, 2011.
Adrienne Clarkson has had an extraordinary life and in Canada, it began as a newly arrived refugee at 277 Sussex Street. The three-year-old Adrienne Poy with her parents and her older brother, Neville, had one suitcase each as they fled from wartime Hong Kong in 1942.
In Heart Matters, she remembered her first home as having a terrifying coal furnace, a backyard Victory Garden growing Swiss chard and tomatoes, and French-Canadian families who spontaneously helped the newcomers. When Adrienne was old enough for kindergarten, she walked with her brother across King Edward Avenue to York Street Public School. The rest of the story is one of multiple achievements that took her from 277 Sussex Street to One Sussex Drive (Rideau Hall), as Canada’s 26th Governor General.
In Room for All of Us, Adrienne Clarkson wrote about people like her who entered Canada as immigrants and refugees. The book’s ten chapters highlight individual stories of resilient men and women who went on to contribute to the rich diversity of our country. Like her, many of them did not have a real choice and often arrived without material wealth or a network of family and friends. Like her, many arrived in an unfamiliar place “with a lot of past, a little luggage and a questionable future.” Like her, they had abilities to share with their adopted country.