One local writer is having her last book published posthumously by her niece.
In her lifetime, Lillian Ross published seven books. Her last book, Heavens To Betsy, was nearly completed when she passed away in November 2020.
Iris Tuftin, Ross’ niece, used to work with Ross on her books, providing services as an editor. When she found this book amongst Ross’ belongings, she decided it needed to be completed and began working on it.
Tuftin says Ross began her journey toward publication in the late 1980s, when she started doing research for her first book, which was published in 1998.
Ross originally wrote a historical trilogy that followed some of her family history. After that, she wrote two about the history of her husband’s family. This was followed by a book about Ross and her husband Reg’s married life.
The final book she published was about Tuftin’s father’s family and the area they lived in. Tuftin says the area covered in that book was the Cougar’s Crossing Ferry in the Sangudo area.
This eighth and final book is about Ross’ time attending high school in Sangudo. “This one covers the only time of her life that had not been covered in the other books,” says Tuftin.
Tuftin says Ross lived in a dormitory in Sangudo until it burned down, and Ross recounts that tale in her book. She says Ross lost all of her belongings in that fire and then moved in with her older sister in the village.
“I’m not sure exactly when she began writing this one,” says Tuftin of Heavens To Betsy. She recalls taking a trip up to Whitecourt with Ross to speak to some of the ladies that used to live in the dormitory with Ross.
At first, Tuftin says Ross was only including her story as a student. When she approached Tuftin to give it a read through, Tuftin advised her to expand the story a bit more.
“I found it a bit too dry. [There was] a bit too much teenage foolishness,” she says.
So, Ross began to include stories of some of the others who lived in the area at that time. Tuftin said there were more romantic stories included, as well as some of the events in Sangudo. She estimates there are about 100 people mentioned in the story.
Once Tuftin got hold of the work, she went through the entire thing. She said that Ross had the rough draft completed, but it still needed some work. Tuftin said with the extra information that Ross was adding, the order of the chapters wasn’t correct, so Tuftin spent some time putting them together properly.
“I had to figure it all out, where things needed to go,” says Tuftin.
She says there also weren’t any plans to include pictures in the book, but Tuftin decided to put some in. “I included as many as I could to make it come to life,” she says.
Tuftin was also able to get a hold of some articles from the Lac St. Anne Chronicle during that time frame, and she included some of those stories as well.
“I found so many articles that applied directly to what she had written about,” says Tuftin. She included those stories at the back of the book in the bonus pages.
On January 12, Tuftin held an event at the Drayton Valley Municipal Library where she sold copies of the books. She says it wasn’t a release date event, but she wanted to make them available to everyone.
The book was printed through Ross’ publishing company called Grass Roots Publishing, which is now being run by her son, Erin Ross, who is also an author.
Some of the proceeds of the books will go toward causes close to Ross’ heart. In Drayton, $4 from every book sold in the area will be donated toward her Fine Arts Scholarship. The books sold in the Sangudo area will have their proceeds donated to the viability study currently being done by the school.
However, Tuftin says, if people want, they can choose which one their money will go toward.
