We Had to Live is the true story of five generations of the Sewell family, beginning with the immigration of Thomas Sewell from London, England in 1773 through the end of my Mothers life, AnnaDell (Sewell) Hierlmeier. The story relates trials, tribulations, and victories, as Thomas sailed to America as an indentured servant aboard a slave ship, then as he gained his freedom by serving in the Revolutionary War under General George Washington. The story moves on with the family, as they become true American pioneers, into The Ohio Territory when Thomas is granted land in Ohio for his service in the War. Thomas sons and families continue their westward adventure into Indiana, then due to changing government policies, forced to leave Indiana for Wisconsin after WW I. Wisconsin is where the story of my Mother and Father begins and ends in tragedy and triumph through the family business, Glen n Anns Cozy Inn, in Madison, Wisconsin. In the end, all is lost to my Mother but her honor, her tender heart, and her iron will. Those are her legacy.
My life has been so rich owing to the people who I have been blessed to know, who have provided the substance to write about, and I have been in so many wonderful places. Once I capture a theme, I mull it over for days, or weeks and months, sometimes years. I may write several drafts in my mind before I write a single word. Sometimes the first writing of a story will come out in more or less final draft form. I tend to be very serious in my writing; I choose serious subjects, then I try to honor my commitment that a good story should make you laugh and cry, and relate to the people, places and things in the story. Unfortunately, there is often much more crying than laughing. I’ll keep working on that. You should know that I have cried first. As I write, I relive my stories; there are some I have read many times---and I have cried over them every time, as much the last as the first. As my subtitle relates, this is an unfinished work. There are many more stories and essays, letters, poems, and such that I still have in mind to write. I hope to get to many more of them so we can share the special people, places, and things of our lives. I have been encouraged to go ahead with what I have, knowing that I will keep writing, and keep crying, and laughing some too.
It is the story above all, and Lazlos Revenge is an excellent story, inspired by true events in places devastated by war, and those who suffered greatly. Readers develop a personal relationship with the characters, Lazlo, Gertrude, Captain Koz, and others, leaving them wanting more. Max Fischer (Maxine Schoellkopf Fischer, fictional narrator of Lazlos Revenge), a writer and Swiss war correspondent whose parents lived the tragedies of the Great World Wars, set out to see the very places, and events her parents survived on their odyssey to escape danger and death. Lazlos Revenge is the story Max unearthed in her travels back through time. She is the fictional daughter of Hank and Roberta Fischer, the main characters in a previous book, Honor and Innocence: Against the Tides of War. Hank and Roberta are an unlikely couple to fall in love (Hank is an American soldier stationed in Germany after the war, and the German girl, Roberta, is the daughter of a Nazi SS Officer being sought by American and British security forces for war crimes). Max is their daughter, born at the end of the previous novel, and now returning to write their story of love and war. Fascinated by the characters who influenced the lives of her parents, in Lazlos Revenge, Max pursues her quest for understanding. She follows the life-story of Lazlo Floznik, the man who saved her parents lives, and helped them escape catastrophe in Europe, seeking safe refuge beyond the reach of security forces that sought to imprison them. The years leading up to World War I, the time between the wars, and the experiences of World War II release their secrets as she explores her family roots, a deeply emotional story bound by the intense love stories of Lazlo, and his father, Miklos, before him.
Our lives are like a tapestry of many colors, woven with threads of different sizes and textures that sometimes must be tied or spliced together. Somehow, through the triumphs and tragedies of our lives, we complete our tapestry, representing who we have become. Our lives are beautiful, each in our own way. No two lives are quite alike, and the finished product is never what was first expected.
We Had to Live is the true story of five generations of the Sewell family, beginning with the immigration of Thomas Sewell from London, England in 1773 through the end of my Mothers life, AnnaDell (Sewell) Hierlmeier. The story relates trials, tribulations, and victories, as Thomas sailed to America as an indentured servant aboard a slave ship, then as he gained his freedom by serving in the Revolutionary War under General George Washington. The story moves on with the family, as they become true American pioneers, into The Ohio Territory when Thomas is granted land in Ohio for his service in the War. Thomas sons and families continue their westward adventure into Indiana, then due to changing government policies, forced to leave Indiana for Wisconsin after WW I. Wisconsin is where the story of my Mother and Father begins and ends in tragedy and triumph through the family business, Glen n Anns Cozy Inn, in Madison, Wisconsin. In the end, all is lost to my Mother but her honor, her tender heart, and her iron will. Those are her legacy.
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