North Amerikay

Synopsis

Writer’s Note: My name is Elizabeth Maud, and this story was inspired by my great-grandmother, Maud Elizabeth. In early twentieth century Chicago, Irish Catholic women did not leave their husbands. A wife’s duty was to family and church, and so whatever her hardships, she endured. Unless she was Maud Elizabeth MacAllister, known to me as Gram. A fiercely devout woman, Gram nonetheless flouted the edicts of religion when her daughter Rita was only three years old. Defying convention, propriety, and her faith, mother and child fled the marital home, retreating to Gram’s family boardinghouse. As Maud Elizabeth’s namesake, her story captivated me: what would prompt such a drastic, uncharacteristic choice? And so Maud became Bernadette, a vessel for telling my great-grandmother’s story – a story of loss, bravery, and love.

Message me to read the North Amerikay pilot and/or for supplemental materials, including a one-pager, lookbook, and series bible.