So I am always looking for a good book to read and stumbled upon The Story of the Trapp Family Singers: The Story Which Inspired the Sound of Music on my mother-in-law’s bookshelf. I was hoping to find something that was not only entertaining but inspiring as well. It didn’t disappoint. I have always loved the Sound of Music but had never bothered to learn more about the story that inspired it. The Trapp Family Singers is written by Maria Augusta Trapp herself. The real story may not be as fantastical as the Hollywood version but it is even more compelling. There is so much more that happens to them after they escape from Austria. I don’t want to give too much away because I think you would enjoy it. It is about a family and its determination to stick to their religious principles not matter the cost. The book and the movie are timeless and appeal to all ages.
Hidden inside the book is a beautiful birth story. Maria did adopt seven children as her own when she married the Captain Von Trapp but she also gave birth to three more children. And interesting to note, the Captain was not the strict, cold representation shown in the Sound of Music. His children actually describe him as a very calming influence as does Maria. Below are excerpts from her first birth:
“By the middle of February Frau Vogl [the midwife] came to stay and two days later it was obvious: this was the day. As it hadn’t occurred to bring a doctor into the picture so it also didn’t occur to anybody that I should take an aspirin. Everything was just fine, the pain simply belonged to it. . . Georg was sitting by my bedside, and that was very necessary. He knew so much more about it all than I; he had gone through it seven times. He assured me that I was not going to die, and the less I moaned now, the more strength I would have later, and this was only the beginning. He said it so casually that it took the edge off my anxiety. I went through the entirely new sensation that this was not pain like a toothache, which at times seems to screw itself into your very bones. These pains seem to come at regular intervals like breakers on a seashore. The moment they stopped, you felt perfectly wonderful and ready to dance, only to change your mind rather quickly when the next breaker came.”
Towards the end of her labor, the children were in the next room singing and repeating the rosary which calmed her. Her husband stayed beside her through it all. She repeated to herself, “Oh God, help, help that this Thy child be born healthy in body and soul.” As the first cry of the newborn was heard, the children broke into singing “Now Thank We All Our God.” Maria described her feelings, “In these precious moments the human being feels itself lifted up into the heights of God, partaking of his power, a co-worker of God, the Father, the Creator of Heaven and Earth.” As the evening closed she said her prayers and her parting thought before sleep was, “It-was-wonderful” (pgs. 80-82).
Maria shares the birth stories of her other two children as well. So if you are looking for a book that is about the strength of family and the adventure it takes us on when you live by faith, you might have to look this one up. Happy Reading and a Happy New Year!
