New plaque on campus posthumously honours Halifax writer, Dal alum

Budge Wilson was given the posthumous honour of having an excerpt of her short story The Leaving displayed on Dalhousie University’s campus. 

“She would be thrilled to think that a piece of her writing was right there on an educational campus, where there are people who are writers in the making,” says Glynis Wilson Boultbee, Budge’s daughter. 

“[Her] message would be to follow your passion, follow your creative dreams and have the persistence to keep at it.”

Project Bookmark Canada is a national literary trail that places excerpts from Canadian stories in the real-life locations that inspired them. Since launching in 2009, project organizers have installed 31 plaques — dubbed “bookmarks” — across the country.

Budge, a Halifax-born author and Dal alum, wrote over 30 books during her career, publishing her first book in 1984, at the age of 56.

The Leaving is one of 11 short stories in Wilson’s collection of the same name. The story includes a mother taking her daughter to Dalhousie’s campus during a trip to Halifax, where she tells her daughter she should consider going to the university when she grows up. 

The plaque is displayed outside of Shirreff Hall, where Budge lived during her time at Dalhousie from 1945 to 1949. 

“She was a social butterfly, always had a crowd or gaggle of girls around her,” says Andrea Wilson, Budge’s other daughter. “She just adored residence life.”

To Andrea, the bookmark is more than a plaque which honours her mother’s literary success; it’s a tribute to all the people she touched while she was alive. 

When Budge passed away in 2021, at the age of 93, the border to get into Nova Scotia from New Brunswick was closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Andrea couldn’t make it to her mother before she died. 

“[The plaque] feels like the manifestation of the support I got [during that time] in a physical state,” says Andrea. “It comes full circle for me with this event.”

Both Andrea and Wilson Boultbee say they are grateful to donors and the Nova Scotia Reading Circle, which partnered with the project to install the plaque. 

When Budge turned 90, the reading circle threw her a birthday party and told her about their intention to bring a bookmark of The Leaving to Halifax.

“I know how honoured and thrilled she was that they were working to make this happen,” says Wilson Boultbee. 

Among all the awards and honorary degrees that Budge received during her career, including the Order of Canada and Order of Nova Scotia, this bookmark sticks out as special to her family. 

“I want to underline the devotion and the persistence of people who saw this through to its fruition,” says Andrea. “It’s a tribute to how many friends Mom had and how well loved she was.”