*Always Watching and Waiting — Wyman, Marlena
24" × 18" (H × W)
Image transfer, oil and mixed media on Mylar and birch panel
$2,300.00
Inspired by Ella (Lees) Inderwick’s diary, 1883-1884. Ella came to Cowley, Alberta area from Perth, Ontario in 1883. (Diary & Ella’s wedding photo: Glenbow Alberta Archives M559)
Ella Lees arrived in Alberta with her family in late 1883, and married Charles Inderwick in 1884. They had three sons. Theirs was not a happy marriage. Even before marrying, Ella writes in her diary repeatedly that Charlie often did not show up when promised. That pattern continued after their marriage.
24 February 1884: “Expected Charlie this eve – was so awfully disappointed that I feel as if I do not want to see him at all now – what ever possessed him to stay so long…”
She expressed an uneasiness about the marriage:
14 March 1884: “The 13th April decided on for wedding”
16 March 1884: “I wish it could be the 13th Sept instead of April”
It is apparent in her diary entries that she is trying to see the positives in her life there, but the entries about her distress and loneliness caused by Charlie are numerous and repeated.
29 June 1884: “Charlie would not take me to Pincher Creek for some reasons best known to himself. I wish I was a boy. I could go where I chose by myself. I think Charlie very mean.”
13 August 1884: “Four months married today and have to acknowledge I am a great failure – I make Charlie wish himself ‘dead and buried’. I wish myself disposed of too.”
30 August 1884: “Prepared a nice dinner for Charlie and his people and they did not come and we are all so awfully disappointed.”
However, the hardships of pioneer life also showed women that, although the inequitable laws of the time made it difficult, they could make it on their own. The ranch was not a success, and the Inderwicks returned to Ontario in 1888. They moved to Ceylon to run a tea plantation, ca. 1891, but in 1894 Ella returned to Perth, ON to raise her sons without Charlie.
