Showing results by narrator "Cynthia Claus" in All Categories

A Lifetime to Get Here: San Miguel de Allende, the first in a series of two, was created from the author’s almost-daily blogs about visiting San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, for increasing amounts of time and in different seasons, spanning winter 2009 to the conclusion of 2012. The culmination of those years was the sale of her house in her fourth-generation hometown of Philadelphia and her permanent settlement in Mexico.

In a series of candid vignettes and one poem, Cynthia takes us into her family of origin to revisit her physician parents, whose lives were impacted in unexpected, far-reaching ways by her father’s service in World War II, and into her life with them and her two younger sisters, covering several decades. We meet grandparents, lifelong friends, and mother substitutes. Dark family secrets are revealed. Questions are raised. Other tales explore Cynthia’s work history in such divergent places as her father’s medical office and a seminary.

In 1968, Cynthia, an American mother, and Suresh, an Indian father, accompanied by their two-year-old son, Ajay, travel to India to present themselves to Suresh’s relatives for the first time. Cynthia faithfully captures in her personal diary all that she experiences and her honest reactions to it.

In this second book, Is This My Life? San Miguel and Beyond, Cynthia tells of her life as an almost full-time residente permanente, having sold her home in Philadelphia, presenting anecdotes about experiences and situations—both wildly humorous and deeply emotional—that happened to her, told in her relaxed, intimate conversational style, brimming with luscious details. Cynthia’s love for Mexico and all things Mexican, and San Miguel especially, shines through all of her stories.