Readers share thoughts on 'The Golden Daughter'

My mother Maria (extreme right), pregnant with me, with some of the other residents of a Displaced Persons camp in Weiden, Germany, probably in 1946.

I am so humbled by the way my memoir seems to have touched so many people. Thank you to all those people who have taken the trouble to write to me after reading The Golden Daughter. 

Lyn wrote to say: "Thank you for creating this deeply emotional tribute to your mother and family. I knew nothing of the Nazi slaves even though I am a prolific reader of historical literature but now have gained much more insight into the complex tragedy imprinted for a lifetime on victims such as your mother." 

For Patti, it brought back memories of her father's wartime experiences. "My late dad lived through quite a similar circumstance (the Germans took him from his Ukrainian village at age 15 - about 1941/1942 to work in Germany. He passed away at age 82 in 2009 and so much of his life is a mystery to me too. He apparently deserted from the Russian army at the end of the war and eventually made it to Canada where his sister was living." 

Michele picked up on the fact that my mother Maria would never tell me about her experiences, and refused to talk about my birth father. "It is too bad that your Mom didn't share her past with you before her passing, but I can imagine that she probably wanted to forget most of it.  She had nothing to be ashamed of, but it sounds like she did what she felt she had to do in order to survive.  It was a terrible time in history for millions of people."

My book reminded Michele about the experiences of the many Italian immigrants who moved to Canada after the war. She wrote: "My friend's daughter went back to where her Grandma (Nona) was from and said it was so beautiful as it was right on the sea.  She asked her Grandma why she never wanted to go back and her Grandma replied 'why would she want to go back to a place that all she could remember about it was that she was always hungry. If they caught a fish, they ate. If they didn't, then they went hungry.'  She said she was very glad when they moved to Canada and tried not to remember what her childhood was like."

Carol wrote to tell me she felt she was travelling alongside the characters as she read The Golden Daughter. "(I) often had to remind myself to straighten up as this was not fiction. I did shed tears with the excitement of your final reunion with blood relatives and the growth you experienced."

Robert also picked up on the ending of the book. "My final insight was how, near the end, you forgave yourself and arrived at what was, at least as it appeared for me, peace as your life was opened up for you to examine and conclude with the erased guilt and the burden of being a daughter to these interesting souls."

Whether it's in letters like these, or in face to face conversations at book clubs, I am so grateful to all the people who have taken the time to share their thoughts about The Golden Daughter, its characters, and how the journey of those characters had parallels with their own life experiences. Thank you all.