Growing up, it almost felt normal what an extraordinary life my mom had lived. The traveller was in her. How did my mom end up in Germany? I guess you’ll have to listen. But there were quite some detours, including India.
My mother, Gretchen Elizabeth Wetzel, was born in Glendive Montana in 1949. Her mother’s family had arrived in covered wagons in Willow Creek Valley in 1891. But this is not where the traveling ended. After moving to Missoula, my grandfather was hired by the Ford Foundation as an educational adviser for the Pakistani Government to set up pilot schools in East Pakistan. My mom was fifteen, when her family moved to Dhaka (at that time East Pakistan, now Bangladesh). Since there was no high school for her, she was sent to a boarding school in New Delhi. It was her first, but certainly not last, big adventure.
When I look at my mom’s life, I think of my Grandma’s quilt, every piece of fabric tells its own story. My mom has lived in the most breathtaking places of Montana, behind mud walls in an Indian village, New York, Hamburg, Berlin, Valencia, and the quaint little village of Beyenburg, where I was born. Her life has been everything but boring. One of my earliest memories is seeing her as a child, her gorgeous brown braid cascading down her shoulder, thinking she looked like a queen. It is truly an honor to share her story with you.
https://flatheadbeacon.com/e-edition/12_03_2020/mobile/index.html#p=76
https://dailyinterlake.com/news/2018/mar/15/betty-wetzel-102-6/