Welcome to my online community. Instead of wine or coffee, I’m serving stories—the kind women tell among friends.
They’re drawn from my life and other lives that have inspired me. I’m lucky enough to have spent my career exchanging stories with women. At Chatelaine, where I spent a decade as Editor, I shared my defining moments in a monthly column. Thousands of readers identified. They taught me how much we have in common—and how much we have to learn from one another.
The conversation continues right here. You'll learn about my new memoir, My Mother's Daughter, which Chatelaine readers encouraged me to write. You can read and comment on some of my most popular articles. You can post a story in honour of your own mother-or your daughter. And you can follow my blog, Letters from Rona. Now over to you.
Credits: Photo © Jonathan Sprague; hair, JC Salons
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Rona Maynard is an author, speaker and former Editor of Chatelaine. Everything she knows about the real lives of women, she learned from women like you.
From the book:
I said to my father, "You don't live here anymore. This is my mother's house, not yours. It's time for you to go." My father cursed me. He shook his fist. Then he left and never came back.

Godless but grateful with the Reverend Al Green
On a road trip this past winter, I did something I'd never done before. I went to a Sunday church service. Not just any service, but the two-and-a-half-hour praise fest at the Church of the Full Gospel Tabernacle, where music lovers flock from all over to see the Reverend Al Green in action. With a long drive to Texas ahead and half a day to spend in Memphis, my husband and I had picked Reverend Al's church over Graceland on the theory that a living, rocking, joy-proclaiming icon beats a shrine to one who died of drug abuse. There was just one catch: those hours in a pew. "Let's sit at the back," I suggested. "When we've had enough, we can slip out and no one will notice." [more]
April 23, 2012
Rona Maynard to speak on overcoming depression at Cobourg fundraiser
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April 11, 2012
Rona Maynard is keynote speaker for Positive Fabulous Women on May 4
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April 8, 2012
Join Rona Maynard at Breathe Now on April 14
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This is your space for celebrating your mother—or your daughter. If not for her, you’d be a different person. Share a story, post a photo and find out what other women have to say about the women who shaped their lives.
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Patricia Gail Lewellen
For My Beautiful Mom....
Patricia Gail Born April 7th 1951- Passed Away Dec 11th 2011
I awoke this morning at 4am the same time you left, how coincidental..I said to myself,.. This time will never...
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Ursula
My mother passed away almost nine years ago now. When I do the math I am almost in disbelief. Nine years ALREADY? ONLY nine years? Depending on where I'm at in my head...
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Laura Grinke Hermonat
My mother left her home in Winnipeg at 18, after passing a qualifying exam, to work for the British consulate in Washington, DC during World War II. A group of her friends...
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Moving and beautifully rendered. It's also hopeful. My mother has never been able to see me for who I am. She is 88 now (and shows no sign of stopping), but I know she won't be around much longer. There are still times she makes me so crazy I wish I she would get off... [more]
Written by Janice Gary, February 10, 2012
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