In May of 2020, Canada was in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. In the Cameron and Simmins household, other serious health concerns had arisen. By June, author, journalist, and filmmaker Silver Donald Cameron had died, leaving behind a devastated — and entirely isolated — widow, Marjorie Simmins. With no family for thousands of kilometres and a bubble of only two friends in her Cape Breton village, Simmins soon discovered that she had to keep busy or despair would set in. She would also find support and love all around her, whether it arrived from up the road in her seaside village or across the country in Vancouver on the West Coast.
"People will help you," Silver Donald had said to her that last week of his life — and he was right. Filled with a mix of emotions, from deepest grief to the giddiest of misadventures, In Search of Puffins is a story of love, loss, and reinvention. In contrast to the death that left her reeling, Simmins is determined to bring rejuvenating change to a new life on her own. The result is a story of surprises and friendship, sweetened by laughter and salted by some hard lessons in survival. Along the way, Simmins considers the best aspects of life experienced in villages, towns, and cities, and leans into her earlier loves of horses and dogs.
Simmins also pins her hopes on puffins, the sauciest of seabirds, to raise her heart and show her how to use her wings again. But finding puffins isn't easy. It's going to take some sleuthing to find these "clowns of the sea," who thus far in her life, no matter what Silver Donald used to say, have remained hidden from her.
In Search of Puffins is the third book in a series of memoirs, including Coastal Lives and Year of the Horse