booksbylyncote.com

Today, we hear from Becky Melby and Oku-san. Becky:

In 1924 my grandparents, Harold and Alice Foght, traveled to Japan. My grandfather, a professor, was there to study Japanese education and give lectures. My grandmother wanted to come along as “excess baggage” and to “cheer and encourage” her husband. It had to have been a heart-wrenching decision, as they left behind a three-year-old—my father.
My grandmother’s–Oku-san’s–determination to go everywhere her husband–Foto-san–visited, caused no small stir in a culture where a woman’s place was in the home. When she appeared at male-only gatherings in her fashionable American sleeveless dresses, she was immediately offered shawls. After realizing that bare arms were considered immodest, she sewed sleeves on all her garments. Another culture shock was the ricksha. My grandmother was not a tiny woman, and, besides feeling silly, was in great fear that rickety-looking vehicles would collapse under her “Western avoirdupois.” Another custom that surprised them was the furo, or common bath, attended by nesans eager to help one disrobe!
On many occasions, this prim and proper white woman ventured out bravely her own. In Tokyo, determined to see the flowers of Sheba Park, she passed women openly nursing babies and workers using the ditches as toilets, and then found that beautiful Sheba Park was crowded with huts of refugees from the recent earthquake. She soon found herself in Zogoji Temple where she reported being “quite overcome by the atmosphere” and would have bowed in reverence to her own God, but “true Anglo-Saxon reticence” stopped her.
Overall, Oku-san left an impression that may have paved the way for a bit of freedom for some of her Japanese sisters. In time, their male companions “confessed somewhat reluctantly to new light on the position of women in Japan.” They wrote the book Unfathomed Japan upon their return.

In my book Dream Chasers, my heroine April Douglas is very open about her fears, especially the two biggest–heights and storms. I have no idea what my grandmother’s fears were, but I have to believe that being the first white woman to set foot in many rural areas of Japan was a set-up for some anxiety attacks. The one thing both of these women have in common is their determination to put themselves in risky situations in order to experience life to the full.
Lyn– I am a third generation author. My father’s sister, Thelma Foght Jones, wrote a book about her family called Skinny Angel in honor of Grandma Foght who loved her homemade biscuits and always said that in heaven she’d be a “skinny angel.”
I also want to let you know your blog has started something! I’m reading, really savoring Unfathomed Japan as if I were sitting down to tea with my grandparents. My own mother never read it because she thought it was a dry old history book. So here I am, a grandmother myself, finding out that my father’s parents were witty, creative, funny, and wonderful writers! There just may be a historical fiction novel in this someday.
My middle name came from my grandmother and I now share it with our youngest grandchild, Lillyanne Alice, who was born on Christmas Eve. I can’t wait to tell her stories of her gutsy great-great-grandma.

Thanks for sharing that with us, Becky. It’s quite a heritage that you have from the strong women who have gone before you!

Today, a new author Terri Kraus will tell the story of one of the strong women in her family’s history.

Terri:

The woman whose story I’d like to share is my maternal grandmother—a true survivor, my Nonna.

One of the joys of my life was visiting that little northern Italian village, nestled among olive groves high up in the Apennine Mountains, where my maternal grandparents were born, grew up, and married before immigrating to America. A short lane connects their two families’ farmhouses. In between them stands a small, now empty house of ancient, mellowed stone where my grandparents lived as newlyweds. How full my heart felt as I walked over that threshold! I pictured them as a young couple in the first blush of matrimony, with all their hopes and dreams…before their brave journey (separately) across a wide ocean to a strange land where all was unknown. Within those aged walls, did they speak of their fears as they prepared to leave their homeland, certain they’d never see their parents and siblings again? What kind of courage did that require? What words did they use to comfort and reassure one another? I wondered. I could see, in my mind’s eye, my grandmother stirring a pot of pasta as my grandfather stoked the fire. I could even hear the crackling of the firewood, smell the slight wood smoke…

But life for my grandmother would be much different than that idyllic picture.

In 1923, she would make her way to the Chicago area, joining her husband and settling in among extended family. A mother of three daughters she found life during the Great Depression difficult. She was invited to a prayer meeting in the home of a friend, where she was introduced to a new spiritual reality, a new life she’d never thought possible, through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The joy of the Lord she knew would come at a great price—being continually ostracized by her family of a different faith. Her prayer time was done behind the locked bathroom door, her study of God’s word threatened when her Bible was burned repeatedly, her church attendance in clandestine fashion. A medical mistake meant she suffered physically for the rest of her life. Yet—yet—she knew the inexplicable peace of God, and remained faithful to the Lord, a bold witness, a shining example of a godly woman who clung to her faith despite great adversity.

When widowed, she lived with us until her death when I was 8 years old, tenderly cared for by my mother—another godly woman after her mother’s heart. My memories of my grandmother include hearing her fervent prayers during her daily devotion time—always in Italian, always out loud—and her singing worship choruses in that beautiful language. These auditory memories remain with me, along with a few rustic artifacts, which I was delighted to be able to take back to America with me from my visits to that little stone house on the family farm in Italy. Now I treasure and display them in my own home, because they connect me with that place and time and remind me of my rich spiritual heritage. My grandmother’s life inspires me as I endeavor to live in faithfulness to God through the struggles of my life. Amen. May it be so, Lord.

Thank you, Nonna.

Book Monday is a new day of blogging here. I will be featuring a book by a friend who happens to be an author. Over the past decade, Terri Blackstock and I have prayed for each other’s children and that is a strong bond. Terri is the kind of person anyone would want for a friend, honest, cheerful, helpful, definitely a strong woman. It is my pleasure to begin “Book Monday” here with her latest release.

DOUBLE MINDS

A Stand-Alone Novel by Terri Blackstock

Were the bullets intended for her?

As talented singer/songwriter Parker James struggles to make her mark on the Nashville music scene, she finds the competition can be fierce – even deadly. When a young woman is murdered at the recording studio where Parker works, Parker is drawn into a mystery where nothing is as it seems. Unraveling the truth puts her own life at risk when she uncovers high-level industry corruption and is terrorized by a menacing stalker. As the danger escalates, Parker begins to question her dreams, her future, and even her faith. Does stardom even matter anymore?

“Blackstock’s superior writing will keep readers turning pages late into the night to discover the identity of the culprit in this amazing mystery. The unique setting and peek into the Nashville music scene are fascinating. Suspense lovers are in for a delightful treat.” Romantic Times, February 2009.

Terri Blackstock’s books have sold six million copies worldwide. Known for her “Up All Night Fiction,” Terri has had over twenty-five years of success as a novelist. Terri makes her home in Mississippi, where she and her husband Ken are enjoying their empty nest after raising three children.

See the Video Trailer for Double Minds at www.terriblackstock.com

Available now at http://www.amazon.com/Double-Minds-Novel-Terri-Blackstock/dp/0310250633/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234798664&sr=1-1, or

www.christianbook.com, www.bn.com, and your favorite bookstores everywhere.

Double Minds

ISBN #978-0-310-31842-2

Terri Blackstock, www.terriblackstock.com

Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=655045822&ref=profile

Thanks, Terri, and best wishes on this new release. It sounds like a winner!