{"id":3002,"date":"2011-01-28T05:21:32","date_gmt":"2011-01-28T11:21:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=3002"},"modified":"2017-04-06T13:32:38","modified_gmt":"2017-04-06T19:32:38","slug":"sen-brasch-returns-to-lincoln-to-work-and-serve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=3002","title":{"rendered":"Sen. Brasch returns to Lincoln to work and serve"},"content":{"rendered":"

Above: Sen. Lydia Brasch brought her family to the Capitol Building for her first day as a state senator.<\/em><\/p>\n

As a young girl growing up in Lincoln\u2019s North Bottoms neighborhood, Bancroft Sen. Lydia Brasch spent many afternoons taking tours of the State Capitol Building.<\/p>\n

One feature of the building she always cherished was the Elizabeth Dolan mural, \u201cThe Spirit of the Prairie.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember that strong woman standing there, looking out over the prairie like there was no obstacle out there that was too large to overcome,\u201d Brasch said.<\/p>\n

That same spirit brought her parents, Elia and Olga Scherbak, to Nebraska from Ukraine in 1950. The couple had been sent to a forced labor camp in Germany, where Brasch\u2019s two older brothers were born, before being sponsored by a Nebraska church to come to America.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey started with nothing,\u201d she said, adding that both attended a grade school at night to learn English. \u201cThey worked blue collar jobs and really embodied the American dream.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brasch graduated from Lincoln High and worked for the state of Nebraska until 1991, earning her bachelor\u2019s degree from UNL by attending evening classes.<\/p>\n

She said Lincoln Sen. Bill Avery, then a political science professor, was one of her favorite teachers.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was also one of the toughest professors I had,\u201d she laughed. \u201cHis tests took three times longer to finish than anyone else\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n

After completing her degree, Brasch became marketing director for the Nebraska State Fair and life took an interesting turn.<\/p>\n

\u201cI listened to farmers talk about the agricultural life, and I fell in love with farm people and their stories,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd then I fell in love with a farmer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brasch married husband Lee in 1993 and now lives on a farm near Bancroft.<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up on concrete,\u201d she said. \u201cI didn\u2019t imagine that I\u2019d be so blessed as to end up living on a farm.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Brasch says she loves the peace of country life.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe live in a 100-year-old house with a grove of trees behind it and when the wind blows through them it sounds like the ocean,\u201d she said. \u201cI used to tell my mother that it\u2019s like living in a park.\u201d<\/p>\n

The farm, centrally located in Brasch\u2019s district about nine miles from the main streets of Bancroft, Pender, Beemer and West Point, offers daily challenges and surprises, she said.<\/p>\n

In addition to farming with her husband of nearly 17 years, Brasch sells education software from her home.<\/p>\n

Brasch said that a sense of patriotism and responsibility led her to say yes when asked to run for a seat in the Legislature, in part because of the opportunities that Nebraska provided for her immigrant family.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was not on my bucket list,\u201d she said, referring to a list of things to do before one dies. But being an advocate for the people of her district was an opportunity that she couldn\u2019t pass up, Brasch said.<\/p>\n

Her daughter Alyssa and three grandchildren came to Lincoln to watch Brasch be sworn in as a senator. The family stayed in a hotel near the Capitol Building, which was pointed out to the young granddaughter through a window.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s where Grandma is going to work,\u201d Brasch\u2019s daughter explained.
\nThe response?<\/p>\n

\u201cGrandma\u2019s working in a castle?!\u201d<\/p>\n

While it may not be a castle, Brasch agreed that her parents \u2013 both deceased \u2013 would be proud of their daughter\u2019s success and her new role in public service.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo proud,\u201d she said. \u201cI get teary-eyed just thinking about it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a young girl growing up in Lincoln\u2019s North Bottoms neighborhood, Bancroft Sen. Lydia Brasch spent many afternoons taking tours of the State Capitol Building.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21472,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[167,18],"tags":[101],"class_list":["post-3002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-senator-features","tag-sen-lydia-brasch"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/MeetBrasch_blog2017.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3002"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21706,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3002\/revisions\/21706"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}