The Other Place – A Collection of Stories

In 2012 I published a collection of linked fictional short stories about German immigrants in Saskatchewan in the 1950’s. The following is an excerpt from that book, the beginning of the story “Braids.”

Mutti had several family photographs on her dresser. She had grouped three of them into one of those hinged frames with three parts. A picture of her mother on her wedding day, Mutti herself on the first day of school, and one of me before we left Germany. All three of us with braids.

In the picture, Grandmother’s were wrapped in a coronet around her head (I remember Opa saying that when she took them down she could sit on the ends); Mutti’s were thick and hung to her waist, mine were looped and tied just above my ears. Each picture had a bit of hair tucked under the glass at the bottom. Grey in Grandmother’s, brown in Mutti’s and mine. But Mutti doesn’t have braids any more.

I remember when I was five, looking at that picture of Grandmother and wondering how long it would take for my hair to be long enough to sit on. Opa said that he would give me her tortoise shell combs when I got old enough to wear my hair up. He let me look at them sometimes in their cardboard box lined with a scrap of red cloth. I couldn’t remember Grandmother at all; she had died of cancer when I was two, but I looked at her picture a lot.

When I came to Canada I noticed that very few girls had braids. That first year it was just one of the other things about me that was different, tht made me feel a stranger.

If you’re interested in reading more of the book, it’s available at Sask. Made Market Place in Saskatoon, 1621 8th St E.

I will be at that location on Saturday, May 24 (along with other producers) for their open house. So drop by to chat, get a book signed, browse the store, or buy a book.

http://www.saskmade.ca/events/may-days-open-house