Life Story of the Month:

nna Prochaska was born in Krasnoyarsk, on the banks of the great river Yenisei. She lived in a expansive wooden house with her parents, Vasily and Vera, her younger brother, Yura, and her grandmother, Yulia. In the spring, they would watch the nature wake up, as the bright sun shone, the icebergs crashed on the river, and the first sprouts came up in the fresh wind. In hot summers they went to an island in the middle of the river to collect flowers and berries. Inna's mother was young and beautiful. She spent much time caring for herself, for her clothes, and for the garden. The family had a wonderful garden. Inna's father worked as an industrial engineer in a beer factory, which belonged to his mother before the Soviet revolution. His mother had voluntarily given up the factory to ...

Hans Shramer was a friend of my husband, Emil, and mine for many years. I have many memories from him. We became friends in Chernovitz, Romania, and our friendship developed in Levovka, Siberia. After 30 years with no communication we met up again in Israel. Our first encounter was in 1938 in Main Street of Chernovitz. Emil and I were shopping, browsing at all the lavish shops. We went into an elegant store that had a big sign saying “Czechoslovakia”. The store sold haute couture men’s clothing fashioned in Czechoslovakia. It stocked everything from ties to socks. We walked in and Frau Shramer greeted us. She was a very elegant lady of about 60 years of age, neatly dressed and with the most modern hairdo of the time- curls in a light blue color. She was very pleasant and...

It was 1990 when I married my first husband Mike and began a very close relationship with his mother Patsy. Patsy was an individual that when she walked into the room her smile drew her to you. Being tall and slender she walked with such grace and dressed to the tee for any occasion. The first outing I had with Patsy was when she invited me to a pheasant hunt; this is when I begin the love of shooting skeet. When we arrived of course she introduced me to everyone, we sat and visited with the other competitors. Drawing number we were second to go out on the hunt and together as a team we came in second, I remember the excitement in her voice when she told everyone that this was my first time to shoot, she was so proud. Not having a close relationship with my own parents, I became t...

In December 1984, the military authorities repeatedly issued orders for him to report to the army. When they stuck the call-up notice on his door and threatened that the military police would come for him, he decided to report to the barracks to explain his position to them. This was not successful, and they decided to do everything in their power to make a soldier out of him. They shaved his head, took away his civilian clothes, and offered him a soldier's uniform. When he refused the uniform, they put it on him by force, and then they put a pen in his hands and tried to force him to sign up for the army. He refused. He also refused to take part in such activities as morning exercise and saluting the flag. When four soldiers took him to the yard and ordered him to do the exercises,...

The sun was shining. The breeze was blowing gently. Birds were singing praises of welcome as Esmenia Resulto-Orallo gave birth to her first child. Early morning on the 14th of September 1958, in the humble town of Asingan, Pangasinan, the newborn Norman Resulto Orallo opened his eyes for the first time and discovered love and beauty. Norman was a smart kid, learning how to read and write ahead of his peers, thus, his playmates adored him for being the leader of their circle-he was always the one with a new story to share, a joke to tell, and advice to give. Norman dicovered a love for adventure-always playing in the vast farmland of his parents until dawn, treating it as his kingdom, where he alone is king.

when i peep into my childhood days,i feel the warmth of those caring and affectionate arms that when hold me,i went into a garden of pleasures and comfort.The arms were none other than a heaven,yes my grandfather,nevertheless than a paradise for me.HE still is my source of inspiration.Whenever i fall,lie hopeless,become sad,he is always there for me to hold me up,to raise my moral,to stand my bar. One hot summer,when my pulse was running fast,i was anxiously waiting for my twelfth standard result,my heart was popping up and down,i was praying that my result might not be brain storming for me,rather it would be my dream fulfilled.Expecting for my admittance in medical college i was trying to enjoy the rain forcefully. The telephone ra...

I am sitting in front of a large beautiful window, through which I can see my beloved landscape: the open fields that beckon to us, beyond lies the border of our neighbors, the Palestinians. We have a hostile relationship with our neighbors, hurtful, frustrating. My dream is for us to go back to being a small country, without occupation and without oppression. A country where we could live from the labor of our hands, without poverty and crime. Well, this is a dream. Maybe the future generations will live their lives in our dreamland. 70 years have passed since the day I was born. A lot of time, a lot of achievements and failures. My most important success is my sons. Five descendants and each of them is a unique successor, dear world. My biggest failure is my marriage, with many ...

I first realised that I was related to Gideon Scheepers when doing a history project in high school on my family tree. I traced him to the Robinson side of my family and discovered that his sister was married to a great great grandfather, Cecil John Robinson. What really happened to Gideon Scheepers, the gallant 23-year-old Boer fighter who was executed by a British firing squad some months before the Anglo-Boer War was to end? Though nobody knows, since his body was never found, this young heliographer became an almost legendary figure in South African history and his name sacred to many Afrikaners. As he was considered innocent and had become an idol because of his daring exploits in the Cape Colony, Scheepers' execution caused an outcry throughout the world. Despite hi...

The painter Hegine Abrahamyan is one of the eye-witnesses of the genocide.She was born in 1912 in Kars,Western Armenia.She is 97 years old.In 1920 when she was 8,she definitively left the Kars immigrating firstly Gyumri then Yerevan. "I was 3 years old, it was the first time our family had to move.At that time we lived in Adana(Western Armenia)”, is telling Heghine.“My father was military worker and was working in Yerevan as military provider.My father took as with him to Yerevan.I remember our rated home was near the Opera theatre. At that time that was a deserted place with few houses and gardens.My mother was died in 1918 and my aunts took me and my brother to Kars”

Love is seemingly everywhere. But I wasn’t lucky enough to have known much love growing up. My own home was abusive and lonely. But when I was 29 I met a young man who decided to love me, whether I thought I deserved it or not, not because I was a woman, but because I'm a human being. According to Tim, to be human is to be the most wonderful thing in the world. We are perfect in our flaws, and beautifully simple in our complexities. Tim was born in Salt Lake City, UT. He was the third child and third son. Two sisters eventually joined the family, bringing the total to five children. That's a large family nowadays. He always considered himself lesser than his two brothers who were larger, smarter, and more athletic. When he was very small his mother used to place all three boys...

When i was about 14 years old, my parents were working and were obliged to leave home every morning to let me and my young brother alone in our big house. Oneday, I was alone in our house with my young brother adel because our parents had gone shoping. I was doing my homework while my brother was watching tv, suddenly, the door bell rang, Adel thought that our parents had come back home, he went to the door and opened it. So that we heard a voice asking politely from outside if our parents were at home. we understood that this is a salesman. Without thinking Adel said that my parents are outside, he wanted to buy from the man some comic books, which he was selling . But, I quickly explained to the man that we are not supposed to buy anything without our parents permission, then, a...

I was born in 1956, in a small town of Lambunao in the Philippines. My mom was a church singer and a seamstress while my dad is a policeman. We have big family, with 6 siblings; 3 boys and 3 girls. It was fun living with a huge family. My mom used to make our clothes and my dad was very strict. The only problem in our family is money, we are one of the poor family in the Philippines, living in the community that don’t have source of electricity it was hard but I live through it. I strive hard to finish my school, after I graduated in high school I see to it that I will go to college. I went to the city to follow my dreams, school and part time job is a great combination. I go to school in morning and work in the afternoon until I finished in college and find a job that suits my course.

MUM AND I... Mine and mum's relationship was always a close one. And my mum was my strength. My sister Trish moved out at an early age and then went on to move to Canada to become a nanny to a family there. She has been there ever since and never looked back. Trish is now a wife to husband Russ and mum of 2 beautiful girls (my nieces) Kendra and Selena. From around the time Trish moved away it was obviously only me and mum from then on at home. She raised me on her own, no matter how hard she struggled. She did her best and did a bloody good job and I love her for it. As time went on me and mum grew closer, and that's what made it even harder when I lost my mum who was not only my mum but my best friend and rock. This is my story, and I am happy to share it with you...

It may seem somewhat cliche, but as soon as I set my foot into the door of my first dorm room of my Freshman year at Lyndon State College in my native state Vermont, the only thing I could think of doing was not unpacking my mountain of boxes, not to meet my roommates, not flop on my bed like the girls in the movies. I could only sit on my bed and recall my entire life, wondering how in the world a girl like me, with a life like mine, managed to get to where I was. My thoughts at that moment in my life defined a girl defying the odds. I was born in Burlington, Vermont to Sydney and Rodney Noland who were a young married couple in their early thirties living in a small apartment in Winooski. The family film of my birth may have seemed like a happy family in the making, but it was si...

I suppose I should start by saying my name is Thurman Dwight Lane. I was told that grand mother Mannie Lane named me Dwight after some radio soap opera guy that she liked, maybe it was the Thurman part, anyway that is what I wound up with. I was also told just about every 4th day of March for 51 years, that it snowed on the day of my birth. I would always ask mother to tell me about it and she had the story down pat. “We were living in a little shotgun house near Bay, Arkansas and Mrs. Lane and Mrs. Settlemire were there to help me. We were going to plant potatoes the next day and spent the evening eyeing the seed potatoes. We had them on the kitchen table when we went to bed and during the night it turned cold and snowed. The seed potatoes froze and they were ruined and we had to ...