St. Charles author can look to family's past for inspiration

Rachel Gies, of St. Charles has a very creative imagination.

She has self-published "The Captured Pearl," a romance novel set during the war between Spain and England in 1588, and more recently "The Darkness Within," a suspense thriller that is written to keep readers guessing until the last pages.

Her works are quite an accomplishment, considering she didn't know any English when she came to this country at the age of 18.

But she won't need to turn solely to her imagination for the next book she plans to write, one which may be her most significant work.

Gies intends to write a book about the Holocaust. She will base the work not on what she has read, but on the family lore she heard while growing up.

"The stories are so fascinating they need to be told," Gies said. Her speech reveals the slightest trace of an accent.

Gies was born in Amsterdam, Holland, and was never able to know her parents. She heard a lot about them from other family members.

"There were Jews in my family and my father worked for the Dutch resistance," Gies said. "He tried to help the Jews hide from the Nazis."

Gies' parents died during the struggles and hardships suffered by civilians during the war after the Nazis invaded her homeland. But her mother lived long enough to save her daughter's life.

On a cold night, her mother and her great-aunt left Gies, then a baby of about three months, on the steps of a convent. They rang the bell and ran.

In what must have been intervention from the nuns, Gies was placed in an orphanage just outside Amsterdam and spent her early years there.

She has memories of that time.

"I remember getting my hair cut, I was about three. I remember how the beds were lined up," Gies said.

She was four years old when her great-aunt was able to claim her after the war ended. She was raised by her great-aunt and uncle along with their two sons and daughter. She considers her cousins her siblings.

Coming to the U.S.

In 1960, Gies' life took a new twist. Her great-aunt visited relatives in the United States and liked the idea of living in America so much that the entire family immigrated to Rockford.

At 18, Gies was faced with learning a new language and becoming accustomed to a new culture. She proved to be up to the task and started reading books to learn English. She especially liked romance novels.

After raising a son and a daughter, she thought more about writing.

She took writing courses at Elgin Community College where she wrote a play that was produced by the college. She also began writing for local newspapers, and she has self-published "One Size Fits Most," a collection of her columns. She wrote her novels by hand on yellow-lined paper, then learned to use a computer.

Her writing hasn't made her wealthy, but it has brought satisfaction.

"'The Darkness Within' keeps readers guessing," she said. "That's a triumph. The money isn't important. It's about giving people something they can enjoy reading."

Gaining a sister

In 2005, Gies learned a new revelation about her family. Through all the years of hearing stories about her mother and father, she never realized that her father had another daughter.

Gies learned that she has a half-sister, Mary Steenhagen, three years older, a resident of Holland.

"Mary's daughter started researching the family, she wanted to know more about her grandfather, who was my father," Gies said. "She found my stepbrother (cousin) in California. He called me and said, 'You have a sister.' I went to Holland to meet her, and she has been to this country twice. We keep in touch."

Photos of Gies and her sister Mary reveal how much the two resembled each other as small children. There are separate photos of them in the same pose, wearing dresses that appear to match, even though there was no contact at that time.

Gies says it's also uncanny how much Mary's daughter resembles her own daughter.

In addition to working on her book about the Holocaust, Gies plans to self-publish a children's book set in St. Charles called "A Foxy Tale." She would like to become an independent publisher.

"I have always been an achiever," she said. "My writing is about achieving, it's great therapy. No matter who you are, you can learn."