Opinion: While most journalists find their niche in politics and issues, Shelley found hers in people, and her many readers reacted to that.
And so, the Webster Foundation inaugurated the Shelley Fralic Award, which, to quote the news release, “celebrates a B.C. journalist, who identifies as a woman, and exemplifies Shelley’s legacy as a journalist concerned with making her community a better place.”
In the many accolades that followed her death, much was made of her rise through the ranks to become not just a columnist in what was then a male-dominated profession, but an executive — all of which is true. What she was, however, was a humanist. While most journalists find their niche in politics and issues, Shelley found hers in people, and her many readers reacted to that, heard a kindred and sympathetic voice in that. And while she ticks off all the feminist boxes, her writing was not feminist in the political sense, but feminine in the sense it was preoccupied with motherhood, relationships, and the day-to-day concerns of an everywoman. She wrote about aging.