More Top Picks Best Sleeping Pads
In our most trying, most vulnerable moments, we learn how strong we truly are.
In 1893, George Steinmetz spent his 13th birthday on a ship en route to America. Upon arrival, he would embark on a new life, one of indentured servitude that would require incredible strength and resilience. He rose to the challenge, eventually earning his freedom, starting a family and settling in Chicago’s south suburbs.
Four generations later, his great granddaughter, Pamela Steinmetz Peckman, would find herself summoning similar strength and resilience as she faced her own arduous obstacles while researching and writing George’s story.
The parallels are not lost of Peckman, a breast cancer survivor who recently published “Stronger,” (tenoclockpress.com).
Replete with a timeline, activities and illustrations crafted by an international team of artists and designers, the book tells a personal, yet universal, story about the courage and perseverance of America’s immigrants.
In it, young George and his family look beyond their beloved Kitzingen, Germany, for new opportunity in America. Like many 19th century immigrants, however, they couldn’t muster the cost of such an ambitious passage and so agreed to contract as indentured servants, trading labor for travel fees and thus guaranteeing a challenging start in their new land.
Now available at the Homer Township Public Library, “Stronger” is being considered for inclusion in the Red Star Line Museum in Antwerp, Belgium, where the port George sailed from is located.
Back in 2019, Peckman, a graphic designer who lives in Homer Glen with her husband and their three children, had the idea to write a children’s book based on her family’s heritage.
“Every year I do a scrapbook for Christmas for each of my kids. The older they get, the more photos there are to put in them,” she said. “One day, I was thinking how well documented this generation is. There are hundreds of pictures of us. But with each generation removed, there are fewer and fewer pictures. We have one photo of my great grandfather.”
With the help of relatives who had already researched their family’s ancestry, she decided to honor and preserve his story.
But then came COVID and its subsequent lockdowns, which put a halt to face-to-face meetings with extended family. On the other hand, her immediate family was there to jump on the bandwagon.
“All of us were home — the college kids, too. The book became a bonding thing for us,” she said. Her youngest son, Max, researched George’s hometown. Her oldest son, Charlie, gathered artifacts for the book’s timeline. And her daughter, Tess, lent her artistic talents to the illustrations.
“It was neat. I was writing this very historical thing about our family during a very historical time,” she said.
But as virus restrictions eased, another challenge arose. In fall 2020, Peckman was diagnosed with breast cancer.
“It turned into the world’s biggest blessing. One of my rules for myself was that I was going to have a long-term project that was forward thinking,” she said. “I had treatments on Thursday. So I’d get up and dress like I was going to work. I would bring my computer and work on the book. Nobody was allowed in with you during treatment but I felt like my family was with me because I had the book to work on.”
The project helped her stay focused and positive, even energizing her.
“I believe in the mind. When I had something to work on, I never got sluggish from the drugs,” she said.
Just as things were coming together, another crisis popped up.
In February 2022, with 85% to 90% of the illustrations completed, Russia attacked Ukraine and Peckman lost contact with the Russian artist who had been helping her.
“It was hard to feel selfish about the book not knowing how she was,” Peckman said. Months passed. Finally, she heard from her and was able to get the last few illustrations, she said.
“But it was nearly impossible to pay her or get copies of the book to her,” she said. Eventually, Peckman made contact with the artist’s friend in New York.
“It is such a paradox that the title and theme of the book is strength and the process (to get it written and published) was met with all these obstacles,” Peckman said.
More Top Picks Razor E Prime Iii
But, in reflection, she added, the project “was a kind of a light during a dark time.”
The biggest learning curve, she said, came with self-publishing. From choosing paper quality to filing an LLC (Limited Liability Company) and creating ISBN (book identifier) numbers as well as registering with the Library of Congress, each step presented its own challenges, she said.
Now, her mission is to get the book “out there.” She is approaching local libraries. It is also available at her website, tenoclockpress.com, Amazon, Barnes & Noble and several independent bookstores.
“At first it was just going to be a thing for our family,” she said. But during her research, she realized there are 40 million Americans with German ancestry.
“This is our family story but also the family story of a lot of people,” she said.
After working off his debt in Wyoming, Steinmetz was reunited with his family in Nebraska. He later lived for a time in Logansport, Indiana, and then found work in Chicago Heights. After his wife died, he moved to Markham to live with his son and daughter-in-law.
“My generation is the last to carry our family name,” Peckman said.
With so few tangibles left of that generation, she said, “Stronger” is her way of preserving a bit of history.
Donna Vickroy is an award-winning reporter, editor and columnist who worked for the Daily Southtown for 38 years.