This story is about a child who, as a six-year-old, was forced to swap his mother for another lady that he was asked to call mum – the lady that exposed him to hideous mental torture. However, on his lonely journey into adulthood, Bryce never lost his tenacity which helped him to develop his mental resilience despite the absence of nurturing love and care that a child can expect to receive. After his grandma passed away, there was nobody that guided him through the process of grief. Torn between the two women during his teen life, the story reveals the bitter reality when eventually he got to know his mum as a young man.
Not only is this story about the struggle of a father-son relationship that lasts a lifetime, but it is also about relationships in general and how we may influence them so that they may become beneficial to our lives. Much of this story takes place in Australia, the place which had become Bryce’s home, the place where he was working as an airline pilot. The book also deals with some intriguing stories and events that characterized Bryce’s life – apartheid, the end of the hippy era, Ash Wednesday as well as other compelling stories and tales that had become part of his life.
Born into a working-class family in 1949 in Basel, Switzerland – by the time that Bryce completed elementary schooling, his father, a self-made man left his wife for another woman. In the early seventies Bryce, after he completed his formation as a pilot left Switzerland, cruising down to Cape Town, where he was confronted with apartheid, before heading across to Australia where he worked as an airline pilot, at the same time living in the Victorian goldfields. He returns to Switzerland after the tragic event of 911, wanting to spend time with his aging father, accompanying him on his last journey.