This lyrical memoir follows the stories of three women through immigration, The Depression, and emergence into the third generation. The author finds her mother’s story in a journal discovered after her death. Using the journal, she weaves her mother’s story into her own journey from childhood into adulthood, as she searches for a sense of place. The author’s visit to her grandmother’s homeland as a young adult provides clarity for the story of the immigration as she meets relatives still living there. She finds connection between the farmers in her Austrian family who live simple lives connected to the earth, nature and community and the simplicity and integrity of her grandmother.
The author also traces and reflects on the roles of grandmother, mother, and child as they are shaped by world events and the changes of prescribed roles of women, as well as by the support of their spiritual community. Tensions arise as the seismic shifts of changing norms, expectations and wishes between one generation and the next lead to spaces in communications between all family members that allow each to lose the other. This cognitive and cultural dissonance is painful to experience, but ultimately finds resolution through time and through the strength of the spiritual bedrock which holds everyone in the shared experience of loss, love and the strength of community.
