Noella Bickham was born in December 1941, in Rhode Island, USA, but grew up in Norwich, Connecticut. She attended the University of Connecticut, then moved to Boston, Massachusetts, where she worked for an insurance company. Because of racial prejudice, she and her African- American husband left the USA in 1963, eventually ending up in Sweden. There, she worked as a Swedish-English translator in her own company (Language Makers, Noella Bickham). Then, in 1997, she became the managing editor of the International Journal of Social Welfare, retiring in 2020
Set against the turbulent backdrop of war and the unforgiving sea, Now I Lay Me Down to Keep weaves together two gripping tales of duty, survival, and the unbreakable bonds of family. In 1857, the USS East Manhattan sails from Panama to New York, carrying gold miners,
