My Favorite Childhood Book

Since developing as a writer I’ve done a lot of reflective thinking about stories. I’ve discovered that my personal story, that is my life journey has a lot to do with the books I connected strongly with and resonated with me. More than that, it began in childhood.

I also was born with a medical condition that surfaced around age ten. This meant I had, what seemed to me, very long stays in the hospital. I suffered acutely the separation from family life and started to wonder if I would ever get to go home again. My only link was my mother’s daily visits. During those, she read Johanna Spyri’s ‘Heidi’ out loud to me.
I quickly became enraptured in the story of the Heidi, Grandfather, Peter, and the little goats. Although I was stuck in a hospital bed, while Mum read I was running barefoot on the grassy slopes with my new little friend.

I was so sad for Heidi when she was taken away to live with poor Clara. She had to live in the city away from everything she’d grown to love so dearly. There was a happy ending of course and Mum must have chosen this book with care, because Heidi eventually went home, better equipped for life than she was before.

There were lots of story points that resonated strongly with me and still do. I’ve reread it many times over during the years of my life, always gaining something else or being reminded of something important. After I was divorced and enduring an extreme sense of loss of my home and family, I read it again, taking solace in the message that struggle is often a gift, something hard to be learned or endured so that life can change and evolve. And taking comfort from spending time with my childhood friend, Heidi.

I have a new home and am married again.  I have someone to love and I’m loved in return by a kind-hearted man. We’re friendly with my ex and are able to celebrate family occasions altogether. When I got divorced, this was the dream I hung on to and it has come true. During the struggle between happy times, I held it in my heart that difficult times pass. I’ll always be grateful for the story of ‘Heidi’, read to me when I was a little girl who wasn't allowed to go home, because the story showed me I had reason to hope.

I have since learned that this hope has lasted all my life. I think it's why I'm drawn to writing romance novels, they are about hope which is expressed through finding a person love and who loves in return. It's about the creation of a new family and home filled with love. 

This blog was first posted on Romancing the Genres last Thursday where I am a regular contributor.

​Dora Bramden writes heart-melting, passionate, romance.
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