WHISPERINGS IN THE BLOOD by Shelley Davidow

The author lives in Queensland. I estimate she is now in her fifties. Born in South Africa, she has lived in a number of different countries, leaving SA in the early 1990s following the political upheavals taking place there. She had a vague knowledge of her family's history, that her grandmother Bertha was American, that she grown up in an orphanage, but aside from that knew little about where her family came from.

In 2012 she found a box of letters and diaries that belonged to her grandmother, and this was the starting point for her to finally learn about her family's story. In the course of tracing her grandmother's and great grandfather's footsteps, she also came to see how her life is mirrored in those who have been here before. To be honest I found this aspect of the memoir annoying and unnecessary, almost as if she is riding on the coattails of her grandparents. Because her life is not nearly as interesting, dramatic or amazing as their's. Maybe I am being mean.....

The story begins in 1913  with her great grandfather Jacob Frank fleeing the Jewish programs of Lithuania, making his way to America. Marriage and children follow, for a brief time Jacob is happy and fulfilled, but the death of his wife leads to him putting the children Bertha and Meyer in a Jewish run orphanage. Unlike your usual orphanage story, the children had a good life here. Bertha developed into a smart, lively and beautiful young woman, making the extraordinary and very courageous decision in 1937 at the age 21 to migrate to South Africa to marry a man - Phil - she had never met, although a lengthy and loving mail correspondence had evolved. She turned down numerous proposals on the ship over to South Africa, I almost wanted her to jump ship with any of the lovely young men she met on this voyage, totally smitten with her. One was a New Zealander, and he promised to write to her every year for the rest of his life, which he did! The diaries of her voyage are a fascinating glimpse into ship life, the main form of long distance transport, and especially for migrants.

She remains true to Phil, marries him, is totally in love, and they begin married life in Johannesburg. Like most marriages there are good times, sad and tragic times, but Bertha is a fighter and a survivor. You have to be to migrate alone to a completely new country, family, society, way of living. What an amazing woman she was, and the memoir is really about her, and the legacy of family she left. Bertha's life is set against the back drop of the Depression, WWII, apartheid in South Africa and her travels back to the US. She retains contact with her oldest friends whom she was in the orphanage with, and also with her dearly beloved brother Meyer. You can see why I don't think Shelley needed to put her life in here too! Bertha's story is one worth telling, and Shelley does a superb job of it. This is well worth reading, and if you are spiritual type of person you may well like the Shelley bits and pieces. Not so for me, but loved reading about Bertha.