Uncovering Lives

Discovering One Immigrant Generation’s Secrets and Lives of Forgiveness, Grace, and Healing

An unidentified photograph, a stack of old letters, and a memory of a shipwreck seem to be promising starts for a new mother putting together a family tree for her young son. But the search quickly leads from nostalgic memories of immigrant parents and grandparents to long-buried secrets, like alcoholism, infidelity and abuse. As the search moves through the Midwest to Sweden and Denmark, stories emerge of families who rise above poverty and pain to understand, forgive and heal, and to live lives of grace and dignity.

Nancy Goede is a pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) in the Chicago area. She served as Lutheran campus pastor to the University of Chicago community for seven years, and Mt. Zion Lutheran Church in Oak Lawn for eleven years.