ISBN 978-1-60264-265-2 (softcover). $13.95. 242 pages.
When Elvera Fischer was a little girl, her mother taught her a song that she, as a child, had sung to spring’s first robin: Robin dear, I love you so.
I really wonder if you know,
Where the little flowers sleep.
Hidden deep beneath the snow. I have waited for your coming,
Robin dear,
And I hear you sweetly singing, spring is here.
All the world is fresh and sweet
Flowers blossom at your feet,
Life with joy is quite complete, Robin dear.
Today, more than 80 years after she sang it to her own first spring robin, Elvera’s memoir bears testament to the promise that, despite its sorrows and adversities, a life with joy can be complete.
Elvera Fischer grew up on a farm in Iowa, attended the University of Iowa, and studied nursing at the Mayo clinic. After receiving her RN she accepted a job as a visiting nurse in Chicago, providing care to the poor and indigent. Subsequently recruited by United Airlines, Elvera was chosen as a member of DC-3 Rare Birds, an elite group of stewardesses whose mission was to “Keep ‘Em Flying.” Another honor soon followed, when United named her Miss West, representing the airline’s first flight originating out of South Bend, Indiana. Then she met the passenger who was to become the love of her life, Ritz Fischer, an editor at Chicago’s award-winning paper, the Daily News. Elvera still lives in Chicago, where she is sustained by enduring memories of her “Ritz,” her interest in health care and in the careers of the many children she tutored individually in math.
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