Donna Aviles never set out to be an author. When asked about her previous career, she laughs and answers, “Raising kids.” The 50-year-old Hockessin resident just released her third book, a true story of her grandfather Oliver Nordmark and his ordeals and adventures of raising six children during the Great Depression. Oliver was also the subject of her first two books.
Aviles' first book, “Fly, Little Bird, Fly," chronicles Oliver's journey with his younger brother Edward from the New York State Orphanage to Kansas on the Orphan Train in 1906, their separation, and Oliver's final emancipation from foster care.
It was written for the sake of her family, Aviles says. She wanted to have a record to pass on about the little-known experiences of the orphan train riders, and her grandfather, in particular. She presented the book to her father, Oliver’s youngest son, on his 75th birthday.
She hadn’t planned a second book, but children who read the first one kept asking what happened to Oliver, and if he ever saw his brother again.
The second book, “Beyond the Orphan Train” begins with Oliver at age 15 when he ran away from his foster home. He worked hard and saved his money to search for his brother, whom he eventually discovered back East in a new foster home.
“By the end of the second book, kids think Oliver is a hero,” she says.
Much of the material for the latest book, “Peanut Butter for Cupcakes,” came from oral history provided by her father, Ben Nordmark, now 79, and his brother, Jim, 82. She decided to write it after her uncles kept asking, “When are you going to write our story?” The new story tells of Oliver losing his young wife and trying to raise six small children during the Depression.
While there was a great deal of hardship throughout Oliver's life, he lived by the philosophy, “nothing ventured, nothing gained,” a saying Aviles says he used to admonish his children and grandchildren throughout the years.
Despite the difficulties he experienced, Oliver was determined to make the best of his circumstances and used every opportunity to the fullest. Aviles says of her remarkable grandfather, who lived to the age of 95, “He was getting a lot out of life.”
She believes that the greatest lesson to be learned from Oliver is this: “In the end, it’s what you do with what you have. Your life is your own. It’s what you make of what you’re given.”
Aviles' second goal in writing the books was to educate children. Aviles says she likes to tell true stories that inform people, especially children, about the social history of how real people lived during a period, rather than textbookish commentary. She believes this is a way to spark an interest in children for history. She enjoys doing school programs and is inspired by her young students’ enthusiasm and curiosity.
Peter N. Jones, Ph.D., cultural anthropologist and director of the Bauu Institute in Boulder, Colo., writes, “Peanut Butter for Cupcakes” again brings alive the life and times of one of the most difficult periods in U.S. history. However, unlike your standard history text…author Donna Aviles delivers a story written to capture the heart and soul of the reader. Not only does the reader learn about this desperate time…but also about personal character, responsibility and integrity.”
The final goal for the books is to help get the word out about the Orphan Train Museum. Oliver and his brother Edward were a part of a little known period of history called the “Orphan Train Movement.”
From 1854 to 1929 – a period now widely recognized as the beginning of the American foster care system – an estimated 200,000 orphaned or abandoned children were sent from primarily New York City and Boston to other parts of the country. Some children found loving adoptive homes; others were abused and used only for work.
The National Orphan Train Museum officially opened on September 15, 2007, in Concordia, Kansas, to register and tell the stories of the orphan train riders, many of whom were surprised to learn that there were trains other than their own, due to the secrecy of the times.
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For more information on this piece of history, visit orphantraindepot.com. For Aviles’ book, visit Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, or her website, OrphanTrainBook.com.
