An Okotoks author has penned her second book about another inspiring woman in her family.
Tropical Rose is a historical fiction about author Debbie Sands' maternal grandmother, the ‘charming and adventurous' Thérèse.
“Her father had a sugarcane plantation, she grew up a very easy, wonderful lifestyle, and she met my grandfather, an English soldier who was stationed there, and they got married,” Sands said.
“And he brought her to cold, drafty England, where she had to raise her kids, cook, clean and look after his demented old aunties, so a really big change.”
The title is a play on the common term of the era, 'English Rose', as Thérèse started her life on a plantation in the small island nation of Mauritius before marrying and setting sail for England.
It was there she lived a life of intrigue, and as is often the case, fact makes for great fiction.
“It’s very loosely based on my grandmother’s life,” Sands said. “We found out she had done some kind of war work during World War II.”
While the full nature of her involvement never came to light, accounts indicate she had gone to Nazi-occupied France.
“She got a letter from President de Gaulle thanking her for her service … I found out too late from my cousin but my grandmother got a letter from Mrs. Churchill thanking her for her service as well,” Sands said. “I know she did a lot of Women's Voluntary Service kind of work during the war, but the actual war work that she was thanked by de Gaulle for, we don’t know exactly what she did.”
While such tales certainly include a dash of romance, Sands is true to her grandmother's character.
“She had lots of admirers apparently, she was very attractive and a lot of young men paying attention to her, but she was a married young woman and a strict Catholic, devoted wife and mother – but she didn’t mind flirting,” Sands said with a little smile. “Even when she was in her 90s, she was in the hospital and my cousin said she was flirting with her doctor.
"I guess for women back then they didn't have a lot of power, so if you could get people to do things for you, then so much the better.
“But she was pretty independent and made up her own mind about things she wanted to do.”
This is Sands’ second book, with 2016's A Moth to the Flame telling the story of her daughter Amy’s struggles with mental illness and involvement with drugs and gangs, eventually leading to her demise in a gang-related shooting in 2012.
A book launch and signing event for Tropical Rose is scheduled for 2 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 25 at the Okotoks Public Library.
It will be available at Yooneek Books in Okotoks and other book retailers. Visit CrossfieldPublishing.com for more information.
https://crossfieldpublishing.com/product/tropical-rose-by-debbie-sands/
