Becoming a responsible adult seems like a significant thing when you are younger. However, as you mature, you want nothing more than to be a kid again and enjoy the things that are no longer appropriate to a grown-up. It can be hard to steer through the silent but always implied age restrictions society puts on things. Age is just a number, and it does not define us. No matter how old you get, no matter how old society says you are, if you are nearing the old bracket, you are only as old as you feel. This is because nobody can tell you that you are too old for something, and Edith Vosefski agrees, as written in her book.
Looking at the cover of Edith King Vosefski (Vosefski books on The Nine Lives of Curious Edith) “The Nine Lives of Curious Edith,” one would expect a chronicle about a British dame or a 1950s Turner Classic Movies star with a streak of “Downton Abbey” thrown in. However, when you leaf through the 300-plus pages, you get a peek of an individual who knows the advantages of continuous learning and reinvention.
It never occurred to Edith Vosefski to put into writing her life. She is past her prime and too tired to commit to writing a chronicle. She professed that her friends keep saying, ‘You are so different. Your life is so beautiful and so unusual. You should write a book.” When she reached the age of 90, Edith finally caved in the peer pressure of her friends and acquaintances and wrote a book about her life.
Vosefski, a Downers Grove resident, takes us through her life’s route: a teaching career; her 64-year marriage to Joseph, an electrical engineer, after a six-month courtship; her two sons; traveling to 27 countries in 25 years; and becoming an author (including two children’s books) and artist after retirement. Her life is extraordinary in its ordinariness of it. In 2020, “ordinary” is a term that has fallen at the curb in the blight of the pandemic for Edith.
In Vosefski’s book, “The Nine Lives of Curious Edith,” it can be gleaned as a way to share her life with others. It is a story that gives people a glimpse into the importance of teachers in a child’s life. Further, it is a story where people can learn from Edith’s positive ways to handle all of life’s ups and downs, as chronicled in the book.
Further, The Nine Lives of Curious Edith walks you through the life and works of this individual, from significant milestones to significant challenges in her lifetime. Like the cover, the entirety of the narrative radiates the author’s unique personality compounded with her natural wisdom, wit, and curiosity. Her book clarifies that there is always time to learn something new, upskill, revisit past learnings, or even reinvent oneself.
As mentioned, “The Nine Lives of Curious Edith” is broken into significant milestones, which unravel the loss of her father, her son’s dyslexia, taking care of her mother, and the loss of her husband almost six years ago to pancreatic cancer. A mini photo album ends the memoir, but not before Vosefski leaves her readers with some words from famous figures that summarize her feelings of living in a country ravaged by a deadly virus.
Among them is a sentiment from Dwight D. Eisenhower: “I like to believe that people, in the long run, are going to do more to promote peace than our governments,” he said. “Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.”
The book, in totality, is charming. You do not want to put it down once you start reading it. You will find yourself reading passages aloud and simply savoring the words. It will move you to tears here and there. The story of this sweet lady’s life was both charming and straightforward while at the same time inspiring and life-affirming. Reading her story makes you want to sit down at her kitchen table, have a cup of coffee with her, and hear more of the details of her extraordinary life.
