Writing Samples
Hobby Farms excerpt
Published in March/April 2006 issue
© 2008 Heidi Overson
While I was growing up, I would go outside and listen to what the farm was speaking to me. The hills, the wind, and the creek gave me such inspiration. Sometimes, I would stand perfectly still beside the creek and, barely breathing, I would look around at the hills in awe. With goose bumps on my arms, I’d feel oddly at one with nature. "Am I actually a part of all this?" I would wonder. I can’t explain the feelings that entered my soul through the beauty of nature, but perhaps you understand.
As a little girl, I would dream big dreams of what I wanted to do with my life, but there was always that nagging sense of not wanting to leave the farm. I did eventually leave, spreading my wings ever so slightly by moving to a nearby city. Visits to the farm and my parents were frequent, and I silently mourned whenever I had to go back to my house in town. The void inside of me was persistent, except for when I made those visits and could again wander the familiar paths through the woods, beside the gurgling creek, and around the barn. I prayed that I could come back for good someday but never dreamed that it would actually happen.
In 1999, unbelievable circumstances made my dream possible. My father became ill with a heart condition. In a matter of five months, he deteriorated and passed away. Not even two weeks before he passed away, his and my mother’s house burned to the ground due to faulty, outdated electrical wiring. My mother was devastated, and we were in shock-driven grief. As time passed, it was evident that mother did not want to rebuild on the farm. She desired a place in town. Selling the beloved farm was out of the question, and my husband and I were given the chance to move there. We built a house right on the old house site (my idea of defying fate), and are now here, raising our four children...
Minka's Miracle excerpt
Published in Coulee Region Women
August/September 2007 issue
© 2008 Heidi Overson
On a warm, July 1st afternoon in 1929, Olava Nordsletten held out her arms to the baby she and her husband had been praying for. The beautiful baby girl was tenderly handed over, and Olava sobbed, overtaken with joy. With her husband, Peder, Olava looked at their new daughter. She was beyond their expectations. They walked out of the Sioux Falls, South Dakota adoption home to begin raising the baby as their own.
A short distance away, 17-year old Minka De Young was trying to get back to life as she knew it before becoming pregnant and giving birth. It was her baby—sweet, little Betty Jane—that now belonged to someone else. Minka would move on, but she would never, ever forget.
78 years have passed, and Ruth Lee sits in her Viroqua, Wisconsin home, marveling at life. Ruth is that baby. Her adoptive parents, now deceased, had renamed her Ruth Priscilla. Little did Ruth know, however, that she remained Betty Jane in the heart and mind of her birth mother, Minka, who never lost faith that she would someday see her daughter again.
Ruth’s story is really Minka’s miracle. It was a miracle in the works for 77 years. Being a woman of faith, Minka had prayed fervently over the years, pleading to God for at least a glimpse of her daughter. She couldn’t possibly fathom that her miracle was brewing in Viroqua, Wisconsin.
“It all started in the late 1980’s, when I went in to the clinic for medical testing,” Ruth recalls. “The doctors detected a heart murmur, and they asked me about my family’s medical history. I couldn’t offer them a thing.”
Ruth, of course, had never known her real mother or father. She knew she had been adopted, and she knew she had been born with a different name. Brian, one of her six children, decided that they needed to start investigating.
“I had one letter from the adoption home that had been given to me by my adoptive parents, so we started there,” Ruth says....
Through the Purple Door excerpt
Published in Coulee Region Women
October/November 2007 issue
© 2008 Heidi Overson
He had done it again, and she was terrified. His outburst had been ugly and violent. He had not yet struck her, but she knew it was only a matter of time. It was hard, but she picked up the phone, and with her heart pounding, she dialed the number. The voice on the other end of the crisis hotline urged her to come in and talk. She took her child and went. Still shaking, she walked through the purple door…
To anyone passing by, La Crosse’s New Horizons Women’s Center looks just like a regular, large residential house that boasts a big, purple door. Indeed, it even sits in a residential neighborhood on the city’s south side. On a particular day, one might even see a woman sitting on the large front porch, sometimes with a child or two playing on the steps. Many people would not suspect that inside, the lives of women and children are being radically changed. They are being counseled, helped, and loved.
New Horizons has been in existence for almost 30 years. Established in 1978 by a group of local professionals and the YWCA, it was created to help the growing number of women who were in domestic violence situations. The need for a shelter was huge. New Horizons’ birth made it possible to shelter battered and emotionally abused women and their children. Prior to 1978, these people were seeking help and being sheltered in motels and private homes.
Over the years, New Horizons has evolved and grown. Today’s Women’s Center used to also serve as the shelter, but due to the increase in abused women seeking help, an additional building in La Crosse now serves as a refuge for these women and children. This building is located in another residential area of La Crosse and has 20 beds.
Deb Hansen, New Horizons’ Executive Director, heads the 25 paid staff and up to 65 volunteers that make the center a godsend for those in need.
“We are helping and sheltering women from all over Wisconsin and Minnesota,” says Deb. “We’ve even had women come from Chicago, Philadelphia, California, and Florida who are running for dear life. We exist to help. We want to make it easy for the women we help. Everything we offer them is free and confidential,” Deb adds. “The core idea is to eventually make them self-sufficient and safe...”
Mlada Khudoley
Published in Coulee Region Women
October/November 2008 issue
© 2008 Heidi Overson
She sits with an air of calm, sipping her tea at an area coffeehouse. She studies her sheet music and looks up when I approach. “Hello,” she smiles as she graciously extends her hand. “I am Mlada.”
In our short time together, Mlada Khudoley shared part of her life with me. As we talked, I found myself drawn into a world—Mlada’s world—that is so unlike yours or mine. As anyone who loves what they do, Mlada speaks with passion and sincerity, yet will offer a warm smile while she’s talking, which makes her extremely likeable. This article could never cover her expansive and impressive career as an international opera singer and actress, but fortunately, she has a website which elaborates on her success (see end of story).
Hailing from Russia, Mlada has made her home in Holmen, Wisconsin. It has become her sanctuary amidst her flurry of performances and worldwide travels. Mlada shares her home with her husband, Peter Fleming, who was raised in the Coulee Region, and their three-year old daughter, Elisabeth.
“We live here because the area offers wonderful culture and landscape, as well as a good environment for our Elisabeth, who deserves a decent life,” says Mlada. “Here, we are able to slow down, in between performances.”
Mlada’s name means “the young” and ties in with the fact that she has been heralded as one of the youngest opera stars in the world. Mlada is in the top ten percent of opera’s elite, and her career is steadily escalating. She has performed with Plácido Domingo and has sung in operas with Valery Gergiev as conductor. And her resume keeps growing.
Born in Moscow, Mlada was the oldest child. She was raised in a wonderfully musical family. Her father, Igor, was a pianist and composer, and her mother, Gallina, had a Doctorate in Music.
“I recall singing in my childhood,” says Mlada. “My parents’ piano sat in their room. It took up the entire living space, and I used to love to play underneath it.”
Her only other sibling, her younger sister, Olessia, grew to play the harp, and is now a harpist who has paired with Mlada in performances. Mlada attended the Russian National Academy of Performing Arts, also in Moscow. After five years, she graduated as a professional singer and actress. From there, she went to Vienna, Austria, to the Vienna Conservatorie.
“I was a mere two months into my Masters Program in Vienna when I decided to return to Moscow. I then toured with my father from 1993-2000, performing in numerous European concert halls,” says Mlada.
Gaining success and notoriety with her beautiful, soprano voice, Mlada received an opportunity that would change her life. In 1996, she sang an audition before the famous conductor, Valery Gergiev, at the acclaimed Mariinsky Theatre’s principal stage in St. Petersburg. He was impressed, and Mlada is now on Mariinsky’s Opera Company’s list of sopranos, performing with the theatre regularly.
In 2001, in St. Petersburg, Russia, Mlada was paired as Sieglinde with the great Plácido Domingo, in Wagner’s Die Walküre. The reviews of her character were phenomenal, and Mlada was well on her way to opera stardom. Plácido embraced her talent and contracted her to sing with him, again, in Die Walküre at future engagements.
“The role with Plácido was, of course, a huge responsibility, but it became a great joy. He was remarkable, as he was very easy-going and made everyone feel good, offering an equal amount of warmth to all around him,” recalls Mlada.
In 2002, she performed in Verdi’s Nabucco at the Los Angeles Opera. Here, her life changed again, as she met her husband, Peter, who is also a singer, and who was singing tenor in the chorus.
“He asked me out on a date, and we fell in love quickly. We were married in 2003,” says Mlada. After having their daughter, Elisabeth, in 2005, Peter and Mlada felt that Los Angeles was not a place they wanted to raise a child. In April of 2008, they decided to move to Holmen. Peter now has an agency, James Fox Artist Management, which is based out of La Crosse. He not only represents Mlada but other international opera singers, as well.
Dubbed as “closer to Europe” by Mlada, who is thankful for the two international airports close by, Holmen has proven to be a good place to live. And being here, so far from her beloved Russia, family, and her opera origins, has not dampened her rising career at all.
“I am living a dream, but it was not necessarily something I wanted, although I am happy to be at this point,” says Mlada. “Opera chooses you—you do not choose opera. Dreaming is more what I can get. I must be realistic, work very hard, and wait for opportunities. At this point, I cannot plan anything—only the stars can plan. But, at the same time, I do not worry.”
The critics and fans would beg to differ on the stardom that she denies. Performance reviews in publications all over the world rave about her robust and beautiful voice and her ability to embrace and deliver a character. Fiery, radiant, first-class, distinct, passionate, shining, brilliant—these are merely words that attempt to interpret Mlada’s voice and acting. Truly, the only way to appreciate her talent is to hear and see her in a performance, which is something you will never forget. Brava, Mlada, Brava!
More performance information (as well as video clips, a complete resume, and more) can be found at her website, www.mladakhudoley.com.
|
