Persevering Through Hardship Can Lead to Pure Gold!

World War II was in full force when Rita Lulay Malsch, the youngest of four girls, was born in the picturesque city of Heppenheim, Germany, where she inherited a love of theater, art, and literature. Right before Germany lost the war, her father escaped, but the family of six faced terrible hardship when he died suddenly. Rita later married and the couple was transferred to the United States, but jobs were limited due to her lack of formal education. She eventually opened a licensed family day care, but in 2002, tragedy struck when she was hit by a drunk driver, and she was forced to close her business. Her third spine surgery left her paralyzed from the waist down. After a lengthy rehabilitation, Rita returned home and began using a walker. While adjusting to a new life, she found that drawing and painting were an important part of her healing process as she learned to “exercise, trust God, paint, and take life as it comes.”

Rita Lulay Malsch was born and raised in the medieval city of Heppenheim, Germany. She and her husband have one son and currently live in Colorado. Rita’s artwork can be viewed at ritalulay-malsch.fineartamerica.com. Shortly before Christmas in 2016, I experienced an intense desire to write about my life. As I began to make notes about my life from childhood and young adulthood in Germany to my present life in the United States, I recalled and relived every single past experience again. Sometimes my memories brought me great joy, while some memories were unpleasant as well as painful reminders of past events. It took me three months to write this narrative about my life. After reading my manuscript, I pondered about what to do with it, and whether I should just print it out and place it into a folder. Because I have one son and two grandchildren, I concluded that they would be interested in reading my memoirs that begin when I was born at the end of World War II in Germany and continue into the present time. My story had become a life of its own, and its voice, inside me, spoke louder and louder about publishing my manuscript into a book. I read two books about how to write your life story, which have been a great help to me on how to organize my manuscript. I contacted Outskirts Press, and my autobiography was immediately accepted for publication. A wonderful adventure had started; and at 7:00 a.m. on July 19, 2017, my late mother's birthday, I received the Press Release of my book titled: "My Family, My Friends, My Life," These Lifted Me Up Along the Way. I chose a pen name of Isabell von der Waldesruh.