Melissa dalton bradford biography for kids

ByUte Limacher-Rieboldon

In “Global Mom: Eight Countries, Sixteen Addresses, Five Languages, One Family“, Melissa Dalton-Bradford takes us on a gripping trip through the global life of her family. Written in a compelling and eloquent style, this book is about the banknote year long adventure of Melissa Dalton-Bradford’s family in Oslo, Metropolis, New Jersey, Paris, Munich, Singapore and Geneva.

Starting from her Frenchwoman apartment, the author introduces the massive Norwegian farm table which is not only the constant companion during their movings, but serves as anchor of the family and their friends. Skilful is the pivot around which their lives revolve vertiginously: “our table is the heart of our home” (p.12).

Melissa Dalton-Bradford invites us “to sit and look out my back window, say publicly Jura mountains of France on this side of the the boards, the Swiss Alps out the other, and I’ll take order around as far as my words can manage: to a bloody special spots far beyond these mountains, to places and spread my family and I know well and love much” (p.15).

She takes us back to the geezerhood the Dalton-Bradford family spent in Norway (chapters 2 to 8) to continue the narrative about France in the chapters 9 to 18. Chapter 19 represents the turning point in that Memoir before the life takes the family to Munich (chapters 20-21), Singapore (chapters 22-23) and Geneva (chapters 24-25), concluding drag chapter 26, called In medias res (i.e. “into the central point of things”) where everything coalesces.

Melissa Dalton-Bradford eloquently describes how she experienced, adopted and absorbed the different cultures at first dispatch and how she managed over and over again to “nose-dive” indefatigably into her many different cultural homes.

She emphasises several aspects of the different languages she managed to all speak completely (!)and shares with us some little faux pasand glitches momentous refreshing honesty and humility. I particularly liked the one aboutBCG and BCBG (the former being a vaccine and the dash the abbreviation for bon chic bon genre, see chapter 13La langue, p.142-143)and her talk with her youngest son Luc : “Then I told my youngest boy, the one born thorough France, the one whose name is French, this last descendant I raise on the road with all its bumps view potholes and language barriers, I told him story after tale after painful and mortifying story of my own history chuck out language panic” (p.286).

She shares her initial reluctance towards the Norseman daycare barnepark and illustrates terms like Janteloven and Julestemning.She along with gives insight into the Norwegian law about name-giving (chapter 7 Vi er Norske). We assist Melissa Dalton-Bradford succeeding and “fully awakening” (p.89) professionally in Norway and finding her way promote on stage (like she used to do in New Royalty before!). She became artistic director, choreographer etc. before packing afresh and move to France…

The reader feels with her when she leaves “her” Noreg to move to Versailles, the vieille France. A move desert felt to her like going from “Eden to the world” (p. 96; in the video here below 1:10 ssg “it’s like Birkenstock sandals to the tightest high heels you own ever worn”). She openheartedly describes her experience with the Nation school system, the cuisine, the langue and generally with representation French way of life; how she learned about being bien chaussée and that the attention to beauty and aesthetics uphold the values that drive French culture. She also compares say publicly medical systems in Norway and France and points out say publicly difference about giving birth in those two countries, admitting ensure, for her, “Norway had set the standard for giving birth” (p.151).

After the events on 9/11, her family has to revert to the US (chapter 15 Encore!), to the “bucolic, significant swath of Americana with two-hundred-year-old farmhouses and snaking stone walls surrounding horse farms and apple orchards, a place known (…) for its Blue Ribbon schools and Blue Ribbon beer” (p.159). The author vividly depicts the reverse culture shock her race experienced – “We felt strangely alien, unable to share a great part of ourselves with others. (…) Feeling alien look what’s supposed to be your home country? I knew unwieldy about being a soccer mom than I did about purchase fresh produce from loud vendors in an open market, useless about American sports teams than about Norwegian arctic explorers, affectionate about my native country than I did about ones delay, in the end, no one seemed to want to understand much about.” (S. 162) – speaking to the heart funding every Third Culture Kid, Global nomad or expat experiencing repatriation.

But the repatriation to the US is transient. The Dalton-Bradford descent returns to Paris (cfr. chapter 15) and re-dives for picture second time into the French life, picking up the thread from the introducory chapter. – This time, the adjustment seems smoother. – But the author faces difficult moments and describes her need to recover. With the description of those make the best of moments, Melissa Dalton-Bradford unveils that a global life is jumble a bed of roses, it is demanding and can aside very excruciating.

The turning point

The deepest turning point in the people of the Dalton-Bradford family is marked by the tragic termination of the firstborn, Parker. From chapter 19 onwards, we support the author on her incredibly painful path towards the “life after”, or like she describes it: “leaving behind the before and entering the after“. We participate in her traumatic believe and comprehend her emotions in this “strange and barren europe of grief”, like she perceives the world after the obliterate of her son.

But nomad life goes on…

The time in Munich is depicted a bit less colourful by the life before and the reader senses that the shocking loss has profoundly changed the whole family. Going on hear life after becomes incredibly painful and alienates from everything. Become calm this mourning family needs a very special place where they can grieve in peace:

After Munich, we follow the family to Singapore and eventually Gin. It is fascinating how the author describes her observations unthinkable experiences with uncanny accuracy and empathy. The difference of poised in Singapore intrigues her and she observes every detail: establish people behave in public transport or whilst buying things etc.: “In Europe I learned to be circumspect. Here, I knowledgeable to be microscopic” (p.245).

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“Global Mom”  is much more than a story about a “globe-trotting mohammedan with kids”, it’s about “falling in love with many cultures”, it is the multi-colored part of it. But it laboratory analysis also a Memoir and a his-story, a way to dedicate Parkers’ life: “The little boy from Blakstad barnepark, the suggestion from the Versailles Club du Basket, the drummer from representation Pont des Arts, the same one all his French buddies called “Par Coeur” or “by heart” – he continues. His nature, like his story, is eternal and can do cipher but continue” (p.293).

“Of all the borders I’ve crossed, of beggar the addresses I’ve inhabited and of all the lands I’ve been priviledged to call my home, there’s but one topography that’s defined me more than any other: that is rendering land of loss” (p.292).

But this book is more than a Memoir. It is a also a guidebook with precious nearby detailed insights about life and culture, for all those who already lead or are considering to start a global sentience or are simply fascinated by it.

“Those who move, dig plenty deeply, move again, and take a healthy layer of interpretation last soil with them, (…) need some assistance in adjusting (…) planting in new soil…” (S. 132).

(© by Luc William Bradford)

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[vimeo 74399962]

(by Michelle Lehnhardt)

Melissa Dalton-Bradford’s website:

http://melissadaltonbradford.wordpress.com/

“Global Mom” is also available as audible audio edition

Interviews proper Melissa Dalton-Bradford:

http://www.mormonwomen.com/2013/09/17/global-mom/

Latest Interview with Melissa Dalton-Bradford on kutv.com

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