Mary Barclay was a single mother of very considerable intelligence and strength of character who lived at Midtown with her son, Jim.

It is with pride and pleasure that I stand for the single ladies. Once upon a time the ambition of every woman was to find a husband but in these enlightened days, husbands are a very secondary consideration in the mind of every sensible woman. A husband is a trouble and a hindrance to any girl who wants to rise in the world. Granted that married women often combine a career with making a home but very often it is not a success. A single woman can give her whole attention to her job whatever it is but a married woman has (or should have) half of her thoughts at home. So her work suffers and she does not do any of them well. A single woman has few worries. The money she earns is her own with no husband to take her to task how she spends it. The world's greatest women were single. Florence Nightingale could never have gone to the wars to nurse the Crimea soldiers if she had been married. Single women have been the pioneers of all that is best and bravest in the world's history. The best books ever written are by single ladies and the best singers one hears over the wireless. Many women are not single from choice but because they have dedicated their lives to some great cause. In the neighbouring parish of Cairnie a fitting memorial is erected to the memory of Meta Pirie who did so much good in the mission field. Who but Grace Darling would have faced the raging seas in a frail boat to rescue the shipwrecked crew? And in our hearts we still remember Nurse Cavil who helped so many of our boys in the first world war and who gladly gave her life for her work. On a similar tack I gave 2 examples of single ladies in this parish, Miss Park and Miss Murphy. As we know Miss Park is now at the Linn Home but we all remember her great kindness when she was at the manse. The hospitality there was overwhelming. Miss Murphy is a great asset to the parish going about lending a hand and acting the "good Samaritan" in many a sick home. Not but what she would be capable of putting any man in his right place!! In their ignorance married women pity us single ladies saying "she never got a man"!! Or perhaps a little more kindly "I wonder she never got married but maybe she let all the caps go past looking for a hat!!" At the same time these married ladies may be sighing and saying "I wish I were single again". A single lady long ago was always portrayed as living in a garret with a cat and a parrot. I have the cat or cats but not the parrot!!

At the present day single ladies are the pivot round which the world revolves. In our WRI for instance where would we be without the single ladies. They have generally more time to devote to the activities of the community. We do not bemoan as did our early Victorian sisters "A 'body's like to be married but me". We are happy in our single blessedness and the world in general is a better place because of us. "The sweetest lives are those to duty wed, whose deeds both great and small are closely knit strands of an unbroken thread and love is over all". Whether married or single old or young the most stimulating people are those who take an interest and find time to help others and that specially applies to us WRI members. As Miss Chalmers said at a rural meeting - in helping each other we are finding happiness for ourselves and them too.