An important birthday for all of us
150 years ago, August 2 in 1860, the third child Lydia Wilhelmina was born of Olof and Mathilda Andrén in Moline, Illinois, USA. Only a month old she came to Sweden, where she was to live in 76 years, raise five daughters and thereby become a foremother of (today) about 90 people.
When I was 20 years old I read Gösta Wennberg's essay about his grandmother for the first time. I found it quite interesting but I guess I was a little bit too young, and busy with my own concerns, to really appreciate it. As a 35- year-old I read it once again, this time much more thoroughly, and became fascinated by this complicated, narrow-minded, yet colorful woman.
Gösta's essay is based upon entries from Lydia's well-written diaries (thank God that she kept them). My own thought was that "this is the perfect basis for a novel". By this I meant: For someone already good at writing fiction, this would be a chance to write a novel with an almost true story, composed by themes as love, loss, misunderstanding, loneliness and dialogue with God. Myself I'm a good writer but not a novelist. I still have hope that I will find the right person to do it, either by him/herself or in cooperation with me.
If I write a book myself, it will be my personal story of our family. As you maybe know I already have a working title: I Lydias fotspår. En resa genom 150 år. (In Lydia's Footsteps. A Journey through 150 Years.) As soon as I'm done with my thesis in ethics, which I'm right know working with, I'm planning to get serious about the book. And who knows what will come out of it.
