‘The gaining of wisdom is such hard work, but the only thing really worth doing with a life.’ Ann Youngman
‘Socrates said that the unexamined life is not worth living. Dalia explores her past with forensic candour, shining a light into dark corners, rediscovering joys and fears, opening up memories locked away, seeking out patterns and insights that illuminate human relationships and drives. Her engaging memoir tells us much about changing mores since her childhood in pre-war Belgium, but it is the movingly honest investigation that is most inspiring, for it suggests how close we might all come to a non-judgmental understanding of the authentic self.’ Jackie Yowell
In 1940, a young student watched silently as the German army marched through the streets of Brussels. Her beloved father was an emigré Russian Jew, her restless, difficult mother a Belgian Catholic. Possibly watching with less innocent eyes was the young man who was to become her husband. Dalia did not meet Dolf until after the war which her family was to survive and his didn’t. For Dalia, it was love at first sight; she came to Australia because Dolf wanted a new world, and she continued to believe in the new world with all its new strangeness and beauty as they set up home in Melbourne. Love, she believed, would conquer all.
Four children, two husbands, a suicide attempt and several careers later, Dalia Millingen examines those things that made her who she is. This book is a tribute to the depth and constancy of love, of how one person can shape another’s destiny with trauma as much as love. Written with the lightest touch but touching upon the most profound subjects, one exceptional woman’s search for understanding will illuminate the life of anyone who cares to read this.
Helen Elliott