Time Did It

This book, Time Did It, by Ute Carson, seems to be more than just one book. It feels like a saga. Many stories woven through more than one century. It's an actual true history passed down from mother to daughter to grandchild of an aristocratic family, of once wealthy landowners, braided into those of barons, baronesses, counts and countesses, just before the beginning of the first World War in Germany. And it traces a courageous line of women through two world wars and more, telling of tragedies and joys, losses of sons, of fortunes, of survival through challenging times and circumstances, of finding love, and of deep bonds between mother and daughter. She writes lush, beautiful descriptions of landscape, flora and fauna of many countries. Years of European history through the lives of these women, including a personal account of a grandmother's scary experience with Nazi officials which chilled me in the pit of my stomach and reminded me of what's happening right now in this country. And the story continues today, through Ute, who is a countess herself and the writer of this amazing journey of her remarkable family and her own very full life in this country today. Woven through it all is the bright thread of love for family and friends, past and present, and for all the many beautiful and wondrous things that life can be in spite of everything. -Drena Williams Bowerman-artist, poet, mother, fellow traveler

From late 19th century colonial Southwest Africa to pre-and post World Wars I and II central Europe to modern America, Ute Carson takes us on the personal journey that makes her the woman she is today.This unflinchingly honest, well-told memoir contains drama, sadness, love, anger, betrayal, and joy. It is a family story of three, long-lived women-Carson, her mother and her grandmother-all survivors. Readers see the tumultuous and frightening world they navigated as their family, derived from nobility, lived and ultimately escaped, not unscathed, Nazi Europe.Carson gives us very human renditions of herself and her loved ones, including flaws, but always told with caring and insight. Time Did It provides a different perspective on what we thought we knew about 19th and 20th century Europe, told through the lives of this remarkable family. -Todd L.Savitt, PH.D., Department of Bioethics and International Studies, Brody School of Medicine