Which One?
While reading Lynn Austin’s Legacy of Mercy, I thought of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s question, “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” This novel is told in two voices and both are in first person. The Dutch grandmother, Oma Geesjae, lives in Holland, Michigan and her granddaughter, Anna (Anneke) lives in Chicago, Illinois at the turn of the century.
Both Holland, Michigan and Chicago are familiar to me so I am truly engaged in this book. The yarn unravels with many interlocking pieces as each storyteller seeks solutions to daily dilemmas. The grandmother and the granddaughter recently found each other. Anna’s mother died on a shipwreck on Lake Michigan and she was adopted by a very prominent Chicago family.
They live in a mansion where she has butlers, maids and a sizable wait staff. She is about to marry William who is from an even wealthier, well-connected family. Privately she knows that their union will save her adopted father from financial ruin and put her mother into a higher social class. She feels somewhat indebted to them, yet not so sure of the new lifestyle.
Chicago in the 1890’s was interesting as we see the cabs then horses and buggies, taking Anna to different places. She is secretly searching for answers about her mother’s life after she eloped and left her family in Holland. Also her father’s true identity is unclear and her reputation is on the line as she seeks to fit in with the class of her intended’s family.
When Anna becomes extremely ill, her grandmother rushes from Holland, Michigan on a train and a young man named Derk, who Anna had met a summer earlier, also travels from Holland and makes a scene at her home until he is allowed to see her. Derk almost knocked the door down, risked being arrested and highly embarassed but he had to see Anna for himself. Interestingly, her fiance never came to see her and stood back quietly until the storm passed over. I thought of Forest Gump and though he was declared to be slow, he assuredly said, “But I know what love is.”
Her grandmother is not impressed with the three story house where her granddaughter resides and thought, “But it is not home.” Oma Geesje lives a very simple life in rural Michigan where the Dutch immigrants bonded, helped each other and had a very tight-knit community. It was a far cry from the immense wealth that her granddaughter has but she loves her and hopes that she will make the right decisions.
As Tina Turner so beautifully sang, “What’s love got to do with it?” In this case, it may have a lot to do with it because Anna’s life, well-being and happiness are at stake. Again, “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” Derk sprang into action, took a train to Chicago, and missed his theology classes to see Anna for himself. William, her husband-to-be, pulled his head into his turtle shell and waited until the rough stretches were over and then cozied up to her when things looked doable.
How will this turn out? Well, let me keep reading and see if love will win or if duty’s call will take precedence in Anna’s life. Though there are several sublplots playing out quite like life itself, Anna’s choices take center stage as we root for her all the way!
Lynn M.
July 15, 2023
