STRANGER THAN FICTION

About Me — Lindy Vogel

I’m an unlikely mother of multitudes

Me, with our fifth child, Gale, in 2016. (Author’s Photo)

I was born a poor, Asian child.

Sorry, that was inappropriate. I’m neither Asian nor a Steve Martin character. Let me start again.

I was born in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Ken, Japan, on a US Naval Base. I’m white. It was the early 1980’s, and at the time of my birth my dad was a Navy Pilot (F-14’s and F-4’s) who was stationed on the USS Midway. My parents are both Michigan natives — my dad from Lansing, my mom born in Manistique — but met in Florida when my dad was in flight school in Pensacola.

That’s not my dad, but it’s one of his (late) Navy buddies, sitting on the plane’s edge. (Author’s Screenshot)

When Mom and Dad met, Mom was an emancipated 17-year-old barmaid, a freckled, strawberry-blonde Finnish- and Norwegian-American. I owe my life to an extra “L.” Mom narrowly missed winning a college scholarship in a large spelling bee, ironically finishing second by misspelling “fulfill.” She met Dad, instead.

Mom been abused and neglected by her parents, both alcoholics, and had lived with a friend for several years as a teen. She wanted to be cared about.