Budge Wilson, acclaimed Nova Scotia writer, dies at 93 – CBC.ca

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Acclaimed Nova Scotia writer Budge Wilson has died at the age of 93.

Wilson died Friday evening in a Halifax hospital with a friend by her side. Wilson had been dealing with complications from a fall in early March.

Best known as a children’s author, she wrote more than 30 books for all ages.

“She isn’t entirely gone,” Andrea Wilson, Budge’s daughter, said Sunday. “She’s left a legacy through her writing, and through the people she’s inspired.”

Wilson began her writing career later in life, publishing her first book in 1984 when she was 56, according to a biography from Dalhousie University, her alma mater and the home to her personal archives.

Andrea remembers how Wilson would curl up with her daughters in the evenings and tell them a story she’d made up that day. It was usually a “continuing saga,” and Wilson always left them on tenterhooks wanting to know what happened next.

“But first my sister and then me, we wanted to read our own books and read ourselves to sleep,” Andrea said.

“So she didn’t have anyone to tell stories to, but they kept on coming. So she started writing them down.”

Andrea remembers her mother as a “spitfire,” who stood under five feet tall and was always surrounded by many friends from different generations.

Wilson was always inspiring, real living proof that you could do whatever you wanted to, Andrea said.

She never made the switch to computers, and always wrote long-hand. Andrea said that might have been what attracted Dalhousie to compiling her many notes and drafts, since one can actually trace all the edits and changes that went into Wilson’s finished books.

Her works include The Leaving, a collection of short stories which won many awards, Lorinda’s Diary, and Thirteen Never Changes.

The Leaving is currently being recorded for Unbound, an audiobrook project with Neptune Theatre and the Writers’ Federation of Nova Scotia.

“It’s every bit as good as Alice Munro, it’s those coming of age stories that really stick with you,” said Marilyn Smulders, the executive director of the writers’ federation.

Smulders said Budge was not only a gifted storyteller, but supported many younger artists in the province.

One of her most successful recent works, Before Green Gables, is a prequel to L.M. Montgomery’s famous series of books around Anne Shirley.

At 80, Wilson spoke about her work, life and stepping into Anne’s world as part of a series with Mount Saint Vincent University.

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Wilson was born and educated in Nova Scotia, but spent many years in Ontario.

She returned home in 1989, and lived in Northwest Cove on St. Margarets Bay. In recent years, Wilson and her husband, Alan, were living in a retirement facility in Halifax.

Friends and family remember Wilson as spirited, kind, and someone who loved interacting with young people when she visited schools across the county.

A mentor to many Nova Scotia writers, and good friend of fellow Canadian literary icon Margaret Laurence, Wilson was a member of the Order of Canada and Order of Nova Scotia.

A book of poetry, Wilson’s first, about the Swissair crash of 1998 came out just five years ago.

Jill MacLean, also a Halifax children’s author, said that collection was very important to Wilson, whose former home overlooked the waters where the plane went down. 

She’ll always picture Wilson perched up on her bed with a notepad in a corner room during a writers’ retreat, MacLean said, “writing away with a smile on her face.”

The pair also had a tradition of strolling down Spring Garden Road to have brunch at the Smitty’s, where Wilson always wanted a “warm beer in a wine glass,” MacLean laughed.

The servers got to know her after many visits and always obliged, MacLean said.

MacLean also wrote an introduction to a book compiling people’s memories of Wilson, simply titled Budge, which she shared with CBC.

“She embraces adventure and makes us feel safe,” MacLean said in the introduction. “She redefines what an elderly woman can be. And most of all, her presence clarifies our own stories.”

In 2003, Wilson was awarded the Municipality of Halifax Mayor’s Award for Cultural Achievement in Literature, and has earned 19 Canadian Children’s Book Centre “Our Choice” awards.

Her books have been frequently read and dramatized on CBC, American and international radio.

Wilson leaves behind her husband, two daughters and grandchildren.

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