Deborah Cowley
Over the years, Deborah Cowley has written over 100 articles for the international editions of
Reader’s Digest, involving research in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. She has also worked
as a travel writer, as a television scriptwriter and as a broadcaster with CBC Radio.
Bio last updated April 30th, 2019.
Articles by Deborah Cowley
Pauline Vanier
By Deborah Cowley
November 11, 2016
The wife of the Governor General, Pauline Vanier was “one-half of a perfect partnership in the service of Canada.” She was courageous in her compassion, heroic in times of danger, and passionate about the welfare of the family.
Pauline Vanier lived a full and fulfilled nineteen years in the l’Arche community, where she was active until the last day of her life After Pauline’s death, Cowley and her late husband, George, collaborated in writing One Woman’s Journey: A Portrait of Pauline Vanier (1994) After a two-week retreat with “my dear little sisters” at a Carmelite convent, she made a decision that startled many of her friends: though already seventy-three, she would move to France to join her son Jean, who had founded l’Arche, a community north of Paris for mentally handicapped adults