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Page 1 of 1 Cotton Bolls and Gingerbread It was, after all, the house -- that lovely Victorian-style house -- that had led me to Emma in the first place. It was the house that had justified my enthusiasm for Emma's story when I was asked, Why Emma Mayer Beckmann? Why not someone else, someone less ordinary? The reason was because her house still stands and I had access to it. I had come to enjoy that house not only because it had been Emma's but because it is of a particular place and time, and it represents a way of life that belongs to people I had come to know in the Texas Hill Country as I searched for Emma's story -- a life history very unlike my own. The house had sparked many questions. What intrigued me most was the suspicion that the Victorian farmhouse connected Emma and Emil with the larger world, seemingly far removed from their immediate environment.
I visited Emma's house, curious about her life style.
The floor plan depicts the spaces inhabited by the members of the family and suggests the way Emma might have enacted her role as farmwife and mother.
The portraits hanging in the indoor hallway put me in touch with the real people who lived in the house.
Chapter Five of The Search for Emma's Story connects Emma and Emil Beckmann to the events of their times and explores how Emma was ultimately able to get her dream home.
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