| Independent
Review
WINGS ISSUE NO. 1 - Feb. 02 By Allison
Quattrocchi, J.D., Personal/Business Coach, Divorce
Mediator, Attorney
BOOK
REVIEW - "I Heard My People Cry"
Anytime
I read a book I can't put down, I am eager to share it. This is
a true story of the incredible struggle of a mother and her four
children to survive in Stalin's Russia under the most oppressive,
harsh and degrading circumstances imaginable. Yet she never loses
her focus on escaping from Russia and finding freedom for herself
and her family. The story of her life and the horror, fear, poverty
and abuse she and her people - 120 women and children - faced is
heroic. The first-hand reporting from one of the daughters (Lise)
who lived the journey captures the reader in the moment and creates
a fascinating commentary on life in Russia under Stalin. This is
a story of raw courage, inconceivable physical and mental stamina,
amazing family bonds, and monumental faith. Miraculously, they escape
Russia with the Red Army at their heels, and after a total of 21
years of trying, are finally reunited with family in Canada. Some
quotes: Of Stalin's Russia - "From 1920 to 1940 one entire
generation had been sacrificed." (This is probably very conservative.)
"One day (Mother) gathered books from one of the (deserted)
houses, steamed the cloth covers off and sewed those cloth squares
together. That was how she made underwear for us." During their
frantic escape - "Finally, she (mother) spoke quietly to Mary
and me. 'Before we fall into Russian hands I'm going to kill you
all and myself too,' she told us." On the train from Berlin
to Poland, Lise was given an orange. "I had never seen an orange,
a beautiful round orange with dimpled skin. I thought it smelled
like something from heaven and rubbed it over and over in my hands.
At last, someone showed me how to eat it. That orange was the best
part of going to Poland." For the reader, an orange will never
look quite the same again.
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