About the author

The author with her husband Andrew

Cornelia Baines graduated in Medicine from the University of Toronto in 1960. In 1970, she and her husband Andrew – a classmate in medical school – bought the Hougues Magues. It was very affordable for a young family. At that time the house was heated by wood-stoves, served by an outdoor privy and lit by oil lamps; it was equipped with a kitchen pump, had leaking windows and there was no electricity. Over the next 30 years Andrew and Cornelia along with their two children Nicole and Nigel spent weekends and holidays at the farm enjoying the community which had befriended them. They also stripped paint, removed plaster, designed a garden – and raised cattle, built fences, picked stones, removed hawthornes and cut down dying elm trees. The physical work was a good balance to their week-day careers as professors in the faculty of medicine at the University of Toronto.

One reason for writing the book was to make Canadians aware of the richness of our rural heritage. Another reason was to show how much we
should be grateful to the settlers who came to Ontario in the 1800s.

Cornelia Baines is frequently heard on the media speaking about screening for the early detection of breast cancer – an area which she has researched for over 20 years.