A Letter from America: A Memoir

This is a memoir of a Norwegian immigrant's son spanning a life of over 90 years. It covers his experiences of growing up during WWII, dealing with schizophrenia in the family, and overcoming a stroke that left him speechless and paralyzed. It is about loss on many levels and learning to overcome adversity.

The author hand-wrote 150 pages over four years despite his disability. It has only been transcribed and arranged with minimal editing. Writing in longhand has been a transformative and healing journey for the author, and hopefully, his story can inspire others to overcome life's challenges. This true story invites the readers to connect with our shared human experience, embracing common struggles and triumphs. As an intellectual for most of his life, Bob has found that he was in his head for most of it, and only from lessons later in life, he is now learning to live from the heart.

"Most of our lives are not screenplays for the next big movie, but they are our movies. At the very least I have seen how therapeutic writing has been for him and believe it is a useful tool for us all. He could have dictated this, but the act of physically writing it longhand creates a profound effect on the brain, assisting in working through, forgiving, and healing our wounds, whether real or perceived. "

Kari Smith