Death or Disgrace

Death or Disgrace

What is a young single woman to do when she discovers she is pregnant, and she doesn't have a single person she can turn to for help?

Bob H.Pitzel relates this story based on true family records about Catherine Ryan, his own great grandmother. He says, "The dates, names and most of the events are mostly historically accurate, but I had to create some characters and incidences as I imagined what Katie experienced in 1850. Much of her story was very sketchy. I call the genre historical/fiction"

Catherine Ryan-(Katie) born in 1821-grows up in rural Tipperary, Ireland. She has a carefree and happy childhood living on the family farm with her older sister, Abbey, and brother, Cabe.

Their mother unexpectedly dies when Katie is six years old, and her life changes disastrously. Katie cannot make the adjustment when her father, Nathaniel, begins an affair with Ann, who was a friend of Katie's deceased mother. When Ann becomes pregnant and Nathaniel announces to his children, "Ann and I are going to get married."

Katie vows to her Aunt Catherine, "I would rather die than be disgraced by being an unwed mother."

Nathaniel marries Ann and moves her into his cottage with his children. Katie begs her father to allow her to live with her maiden Aunt Catherine to apprentice as a dressmaker. Her more important unspoken motive is to get away from Ann. Nathaniel allows his daughter to move in with her aunt who lives in Nenagh a large town and dressmaking center in Tipperary.

In 1838, all of Katie's immediate family and most of her close relatives immigrate to Canada to secure homesteads in rural Upper Canada (Ontario). Katie remains in Ireland and becomes an accomplished dressmaker- eventually taking over most of her aunt's business.

After her aunts death in 1848 and a disastrous love affair when the father of her unborn child, William Hayes, deserts her -Katie discovers she is pregnant. She searches for a way to hide her pregnancy.

In 1850, rural Ireland is suffering the results of "The Great Hunger" a three year famine brought on by the failure of the potato crop. Potatoes were the principal food source for most of the poor people in Ireland. Landowners evicted the cottiers who lived on their lands and pulled down their cottages. Lawlessness and homeless people and the fact that she is pregnant force Katie to give up her dressmaking business. Katie makes the harrowing voyage across the Atlantic to Canada.

Canadian winter sets in trapping Katie in Montreal for several months. She has to wait until spring to continue the overland journey to Upper Canada. Katie runs out of money to pay for her lodging, but does find work as a domestic servant in a hotel. Katie manages to conceal her pregnancy until she leaves.

In the spring, Katie continues her journey to join her family. Her choice is to bear the disgrace and censure against her for being an unwed mother or just allow herself to die. The lack of tolerance for any religious transgressions of the protestants in Upper Canada are nearly as strict as in Ireland.

Katie decides to face the disgrace and is forced to make many difficult choices in order to provide security for herself and her son, Isaac.

Katie is reunited with William Hayes when he immigrates to Canada. William acknowledges that Isaac is his son, and he and Katie marry in 1855.

Katie does not choose death, but bears the disgrace and dies at 84 years of age in 1906.

The novel's title is taken from the Ryan heraldic family motto, "Malo More Quam Foedari" which means "Rather Death than Disgrace".