Orphan Doors

When Bea Seidl was a young girl growing up in the Fox River Valley in northeastern Wisconsin, she was abruptly chaperoned in a fancy new dress to a new life. Before she could hardly make sense of what was happening, she was the newest resident of St. Joseph's Orphanage in Green Bay, where stern nuns, rigid regimens, and scant tenderness defined her days. She emerged from eight years there hard of heart and spirit but soon embarked on a life journey to rediscover the meaning of family in ways she did not imagine possible. Orphan Doors is Seidl's inspiring, poignant memoir of survival and personal strength that is certain to resonate with anyone who believes in the resiliency of the human heart. Both deeply felt and delightfully humorous, her firsthand account of an abusive home and abandonment charts her beginnings in a dysfunctional family to her own attempts as an adult to forge a family of her own, a desire at times met with tragedy and ultimately with profound joy. In 1942, Seidl was given over to St. Joseph's Orphanage, with no explanation as to why her mother Glenda lost custody of her and her siblings. Most traumatic for the author was the loss of her older sister, who had long served as her protector in their chaotic household. At the punitive hands of Sister Edythe and other sisters at the orphanage, young Beatrice was given little comfort, immersing herself in schoolwork. However, she eventually found a rewarding life for herself in her beautiful and tender husband, Ken. It was not too long before fate intervened and a young, widowed Beatrice had to find a new path to a fulfilling, family life- and even a way back to the Catholic Church as a gratifying vocation. As Seidl rises above dark days and emotional isolation, Orphan Doors offers an uplifting story of hope, happiness, and a good dose of plain silliness. It's a heartfelt testament to love, reconnection, and the healing power of laughter.

Bea Seidl worked for the Diocese of Green Bay for twenty-nine years before retiring in 2008. Her firsthand experience in the 1940s as a resident of St. Joseph’s Orphanage for eight years, as well as all that happened to her in her life afterward moved her to tell her story in the memoir, Orphan Doors. The author and her second husband Jerry together raised eight children from their previous marriages. She is now the grandmother of sixteen and great grandmother of four. Seidl lives in Green Bay, Wisconsin and enjoys reading, gardening, dancing, theater, and any board or card game.