GREENFIELD — Eveline MacDougall has supported human rights in various ways for 32 years. On Sunday, she gave a special sermon at All Souls Church in Greenfield in observance of International Women’s Day, a United Nations-recognized celebration of women’s rights and political equality of the sexes.
MacDougall recently wrote about her experiences in a book called “Fiery Hope: Building Community with the Amandla Chorus.” But rather than talk about her experiences with famous woman activists, MacDougall focused her sermon on the “everyday heroics” of women that often go unrecognized.
In 1983, when she was 19, MacDougall’s father was gravely ill, with only a few years left to live. To get out of the house for a while, MacDougall took a road trip with friends to the American West. She stood on the Continental Divide and saw San Francisco and the Pacific Ocean.
But when she came home again to Plattsburgh, N.Y., her father, at 6 feet tall, now weighed 105 pounds. MacDougall quickly became depressed again.
The next morning, MacDougall’s mother, Céline, woke her up early to do “something special.”
“My mom had a gift for saying, ‘We’re going to do something special’ and you knew you were going to learn something,” MacDougall said.
Her mother handed her a plastic bag stuffed with clothes, and drove her into a “seedy” part of town. She led MacDougall into an apartment building, up two flights in a staircase that smelled like cigarettes, and knocked on a door.
The woman who answered, MacDougall recalled, was tall and beautiful, with dark skin and white teeth. She greeted Céline in French. (MacDougall’s parents had come to upstate New York from Quebec and the family spoke both English and French.)
Inside, MacDougall said, the floor was covered with mattresses. There were seven children, all healthy-looking, and one other woman sitting with her back against the wall, staring into space. The woman who had answered the door, Sareeya, explained that the other woman, Nadia, was just tired that day; but MacDougall sensed that Nadia was often tired.
Shocked at the conditions of the apartment, MacDougall wondered: “How can people live like this? What’s wrong with Nadia? Is she the mother of some of these kids? How can Sareeya be so serene and gracious? Where are the men? What will happen to these people?”
The women and children, Céline explained afterward, were refugees from the unrest in Somalia that would soon lead to the Somali Civil War. The men were all dead. The children were not Nadia’s or Sareeya’s — the women were only helping them immigrate to Montreal. They had flown into Atlanta, and were in upstate New York while they awaited clearance.
“Now I pictured our little house, and realized it was a palace,” MacDougall said.
The MacDougalls stayed at the apartment for a while, and Céline read a French story to the children, but they soon had to leave. Céline was a piano teacher, and had a lesson later that morning.
At home, MacDougall listened to her mother patiently guiding a student through a simple piece, and wondered, “How do these strong women do it?”
Reach Max Marcus at mmarcus@recorder.com or 413-930-4231.