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Mary-Lee Blemings has written a children's book based on her time teaching at Ralston School and the legend of the underground "Herman."
jappel@medicinehatnews.com@MHNJeremyAppel
A former Ralston School teacher has written a children’s book that takes place at her old stomping grounds.
Mary-Lee Blemings, who lives in Edmonton, taught at Ralston School as well as Eagle Butte High School. Her illustrator, Laura Kennedy, is also a former Ralston teacher who now teaches at Irvine School.
Blemings says her book – “The (Not-So) True Story of the Ralston School Herman” – was inspired by the legend of a haunted tunnel that goes from Ralston School to the CFB Suffield base.
“We used to always go down there and make a haunted house with the junior high kids,” she said.
“The whole school, they all knew that this so-called Herman lived down there. I didn’t realize how old the legend was until we had a reunion and people that came back to the school who had been there 20 years ago would say things like, ‘So, is Herman still in the basement?'”
Blemings said this gave her the ability to write her own origin story for Herman.
The story’s protagonist is a Grade 5 girl, whom the author described as a “misfit” and “troublemaker.”
“She is in trouble with the principal and she hides from him. She goes down there and the doors open, and she gets into the tunnel,” said Blemings. “She encounters (Herman) there.”
The protagonist learns that Herman’s real name is Alwin, which means “noble friend” in German.
“It turns out he’s not a Frankenstein-type monster,” Blemings said. “He’s a 19-year-old man. He was a prisoner of war at the camp at Medicine Hat and he escaped. He was harboured for years by a German couple who were living in the south of Suffield.”
He eventually went down to live in the tunnels, which were built during the Cold War, with various people from the school coming down to give him groceries.
The protagonist learns a lesson in accepting people as they are and being a kinder person, Blemings said.
She said her main inspiration for this story was her experience getting kids engaged in the subject matter as an English teacher.
“I did lots of writing my own stories when I was teaching,” said Blemings. “The kids respond to it so well. They love it. We have their names in the story. That’s my source of pride over the years – teaching language arts and loving it, and getting my kids to love it.”
Those interested in purchasing a copy – either paperback or e-book – can do so at Amazon.
