Kennedy Katalin

Article by Lisa Etherington-Runions
The Journal Cornwall
June 5, 2013

Kennedy is pictured with her first novel, The Women Gather, based on her extensive involvement in women's issues during her career in the federal civil service.

In 1956, on the heels of the Hungarian Revolution, 200,000 Hungarians fled their war torn homeland as refugees, Katalin Kennedy, then a child of only eight years old, fled Hungary with her parents and walked three hours through snow covered fields and freezing temperatures, until they reached Austria on Christmas Eve.

Prior to this, her father had been captured and imprisoned with thousands of others, without trial for nearly seven years as a political prisoner. "For four years, my mother, who was only 23 years old when he was taken, didn't know what had happened to him.'' said Kennedy. "Then out of nowhere, my mother received a postcard that told he had been in a maximum security prison from which he was not permitted to write." "In the next three years, he was released three times, whenever there was an upheaval in the government. The third time he felt there was no alternative but to escape from Hungary.''

Kennedy and her family remained in Austria in refugee camps until her mother's feet healed having frozen black from frostbite from the harsh temperatures walking through the snow. Thanks to the Red Cross, they arrived to their new country and home here in Canada in 1957.

The memory of this period in Kennedy's life will stay with her always. Kennedy spent most of her adult life in Ottawa where she attended Carleton University, obtaining a degree in English literature with minors in religion and sociology.

In 1972, she married Duncan Scott Kennedy, who was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1982, and they moved to Maxville, his first charge being in Maxville and St. Elmo.

During this time, Kennedy, working in social services with Health Canada, started commuting to Ottawa each day. Kennedy initially worked with the New Horizons Program and later as elder abuse consultant at the Family Violence Prevention Division. She was also the program manager of major national projects across Canada on issues relating to violence against women.

Kennedy and her husband eventually moved back to Ottawa where she continued in her career with the government, until she retired in 2003. Once more, her husband assumed his Maxville charge, and they settled in Cornwall. "I worked hard at this time to reinvent myself. Duncan died three years later, and this changed every single day of my life. And yet again I had to reinvent myself, now as a woman living alone.''

Following retirement, Kennedy first joined and volunteered with a number of community organizations, of which she is still a member -- organizations such as the Probus Club of Cornwall, the Canadian Federation of University Women, the Cornwall and Area Writers' Society, the Encore Seniors Education Centre at St. Lawrence College, and with St. John's Presbyterian I Church.

She also volunteered through the church community visiting homes and facilities such as Glen Stor Dun Lodge. "I am of the belief that a community has many facets. Interest groups are being established all the time, those dealing with health and wellness issues, those with the environment matters etc. We can't belong and actively participate in all of them, but again, based on interest we can support them. In addition, one must never forget that without the arts, a community has no soul.''

Kennedy recognized that she had always been in awe of people who seemed to have a zeal and dedication about their creative outlets. She thought for sometime as to what activity had given her that feeling in her life. "It clearly was not my frenetic busy agenda, running from one meeting to another over a span of 30 years, which is why I took an early retirement in 2003. No, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it was writing where I felt most joy and accomplishment.''

"I also believe that it is important to get important messages out to others, and I believe I can do this through my writing.'' When Kennedy was working she wrote speeches and reports, but since retiring, she has written poetry, short vignettes, short stories, and a column. However, Kennedy realized she needed something challenging, and started working on her novel The Women Gather. "It was clear to me that in my career most
of my dealings involved women - whose voices were generally dismissed. Based on my experiences, and the experiences of other women, I was able to start weaving my story,'' she said.

In July 2012, she had an astounding book "launch, with the book being sold through local businesses, and the huge Chapters bookstore chain. She also engaged the team of book marketing services to promote her novel on a 10-day web book tour.

Kennedy, now enthused and inspired, is embarking on her second novel, simply titled Book Two. Now with a business license in hand she is slowly getting the gist of that responsibility. She now is more than a writer, but is involved to some degree in the production, marketing and selling of the novel she wrote and anticipates subsequent novels. She is also exploring e-book publications. Through the whole process Kennedy is quick to admit that it has placed her in a community of creative people whom she
admires and supports.

Tracy-Lynn Chisholm created the cover for her book The Women Gather. "She read my novel, designed and painted this glorious symbolic representation of the issues I discuss inside the pages," Kennedy said. "David Rawnsley, who gave a kind review of my novel, also wrote: ''If ever a book could be judged by its cover then this is the one.'' Success means different things for various people but for Kennedy her real success story has been belonging in a community.

"Having family and friends who accept me regardless of my warts and foibles, and coming to terms with my fallibility. Success also means understanding and accepting who we are, and that it is all right to be who we are.''