A House of Tailors by Patricia Reilly Giff
I will look for you at the port, and together we will shed oceans of tears as we hug, this time for joy.
All my love,
Katharina
Darling,
Katharina says she will be wearing your hat. Of course!
Mama
AFTERWORD
As a child I loved stories my mother and her mother told about my great-grandmother Dina: a loving, laughing woman who bore fifteen children in eighteen years, and who was the heart of our family even long after her death. When I began to write, I always thought I’d write about her someday. Much of this is fiction, of course, but her spirit is real, I hope.
In 1870, my great-grandmother Christina Schütz, called Dina, took the terrible journey to America to escape sewing. When she arrived, she saw the rug worn bare and knew she had come to a house of tailors. She stayed with the Uncle until she married Johann Schaeffer. They suffered through the smallpox epidemic; the story of the health department is true, except it was Johann who cleaned the house and dressed Dina and her tiny baby, Mary. He convinced the men to leave Mary there, and as they left, Dina collapsed at the sink.
Mary carried the marks of smallpox on her face all her life, but she was loved by two men, her husband and his brother, both of whom thought she was beautiful.
The story of the storm on the ship was also true. For the rest of her life, Dina never ate or drank on Good Friday in gratitude for surviving it.
Katharina never came to America. She had a fine tailoring business and remained single all her life. Sadly, it is believed that as an old woman she was put to death by the Nazis.
The Schütz house still exists, not in Breisach but in Heidelberg. I have stood there several times looking at the Neckar River and remembering that every fall Dina would sigh and say it was homesick weather.
I write this especially so that the story of Dina and her beloved, Johann, will be remembered by our family.
Patricia Reilly Giff is the author of many beloved books for children, including the Kids of the Polk Street School books, the Friends and Amigos books, and the Polka Dot Private Eye books. Several of her novels for older readers have been chosen as ALA Notable Books and ALA Best Books for Young Adults. They include The Gift of the Pirate Queen; All the Way Home; Nory Ryan’s Song, a Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators Golden Kite Honor Book for Fiction; and the Newbery Honor Books Lily’s Crossing and Pictures of Hollis Woods. Lily’s Crossing was also chosen as a Boston Globe–Horn Book Honor Book.
Patricia Reilly Giff lives in Connecticut.
Published by
Wendy Lamb Books
an imprint of
Random House Children’s Books
a division of Random House, Inc.
New York
Copyright © 2004 by Patricia Reilly Giff
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Giff, Patricia Reilly.
A house of tailors / Patricia Reilly Giff.
p. cm.
Summary: When thirteen-year-old Dina emigrates from Germany to America in 1871, her only wish is to return home as soon as she can, but as the months pass and she survives a multitude of hardships living with her uncle and his young wife and baby, she finds herself thinking of Brooklyn as her home.
[1. Emigration and immigration—Fiction. 2. German-Americans—Fiction.
3. Sewing—Fiction. 4. Uncles—Fiction. 5. Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)—
History—19th century—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7 . G3626Hr 2004
[Fic]—dc22 2003026103
eISBN: 978-0-375-89055-0
v3.0
Patricia Reilly Giff, A House of Tailors