This story is a microcosm of millions of others, a love story of two people seeking to be to be reunited after years of separation. My mother's death. The sudden discovery of family papers. My father's unfinished manuscript. Her account of a perilous escape from our native Sudetenland.

My father's writings chronicle the rising specter of nationalism. How his libertarian views became disillusioned with ties of other family members to Berlin's inner circle. Hitler's occupation of native soil. My father's near fatal injuries in the Italian campaign.

My mother's and my survival were dependent upon her wits and ingenuity - the advancing Red Army, Czech retribution, refugee camps.

In an ironic twist of fate, this story begins during the Great Depression and outbreak of WW II. It's first rough outline conceived during the Great Recession of 2008/2009. Finally published some ten years later during the world's worst health and financial crisis in modern history. May my children, their children and, indeed, the worlds' children be spared many years of misery to come.