Dear Catherine – Missing No More
by Susan McGuirk
I have a free newsletter on Substack called The Storied Sisters Society. Each week a different heroine of historical fiction is highlighted, but with a modern twist. There are headings like, “Her Superpower Is:” to give these women of the past a contemporary spin. I thought it might be fun to give my protagonist, Catherine McGuirk of Dear Missing Friend, the same Storied Sisters Society treatment I give other heroines.
The Moxie Meter: 9/10 Cath leaves her homeland to come to America, learns every job in two hotels, befriends two famous authors, hangs out with a former slave turned actual saint, fulfills her professional teaching ambitions, helps support many nieces and nephews – and all this while it’s still the 1800s.
Why We Love Her: Cath is a good friend and loyal to her family. She makes the best with what she is given. Her relationships with young people are a strength. Cath’s innate honesty inspires trust from others.
Why We Question Her: Cath’s vindictiveness is her worst quality. It takes time and healing from loss for her to finally wake up and rise above her grievances.
Her Superpower Is: Teaching. Cath’s work, once she is finally able to perform it, means the world to her. It is what she trained for and deeply believes she can do. Once it is finally her profession, teaching sustains her through heartbreak, loss, and joy. As long as she has pupils to teach, Cath can find a measure of peace.
From Leading Lady to Heroine Moment: Cath has a reckoning when she hides in the back of an empty church to escape the turmoil of Michael trying to find her again. She hears the whisper in her ear of a wise older friend, passed on for years, who spent time there. His former lectures about mercy seem to finally be taking root in her. Forgiveness is starting to soften Cath’s hardened heart.
Her Paradoxes:
1) It takes Cath by surprise that she has no chance of becoming a governess in a town of working people who can’t afford them. She assumes there are landed gentry in most American towns, like in Ireland.
2) Though the only girl in a family of boys, Cath’s two sisters-in-law are as close as any real sisters. Both also have multiple brothers.
3) Cath is qualified to teach in more subjects than the male teacher working in the same wealthy household. Yet he has the title of “tutor’ while she is stuck with “nurse.”
Who Plays her in the Movie: Cath goes from teenager to bride to governess, so a versatile actress is called for. Irish actresses Jessie Buckley or Saoirse Ronan might fit the bill, or even the lesser-known Sarah Bolger, from the series The Westies.
Weird Hidden Themes: Two characters in the novel have near death accidents that inform the experience of the other across time and space.
What the Book is Really About: It is about waiting: for escape, for return, for news, for closure, for release. Answers to issues like these in the 1800s are few and patience and acceptance, a necessity. It is no mystery why the word “forbearance” is no longer in use.
What We Take Away: I end each post with the Storied Sisters Society Code:
“We honor the women of the past who endured so the women of the present can prevail.” I believe we all stand on the shoulders of the women who went before us. Sometimes, it is the women in our own families, even those we haven’t heard of, who were brave and fierce. They forged paths through difficult terrain, arguably rougher than our own, that benefit us still today.
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