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The Meeting of Anni Adams: The Butterfly of Luxembourg

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Mr. Lonnie Story:

Thank you, so much, for your book on Anni Adams!!! It is one of the best, most meaningful books, other than our Lord's Word, that I have had the pleasure of reading/living! You have captured Anni's true spirit and expressed it in such a way
which convey that spirit deep into my soul. Once I started reading this treasure, I
was transported into another world, Anni's World, upon her beautiful and glorious
wings, as you so aptly stated it. What a great "metaphor" to use throughout the
story. Once I was in "Anni's World", I became "intertwined" with the characters
and the events of Anni's life, so much so, that I could not stop reading and it was
literally, hurtful, to put it down and exit that world for my "real world" existence and
all my inconsequential problems as compared to Anni's trials and tribulations!!!

Like you, I first met Anni, early 2003, when I was going to Six Sisters with my card
to pick up my monthly flowers for my wife, expecting to see Tricia. But a new person
was there, Anni Adams, who so graciously took my card and filled the order. At that
moment, I felt this was a special person, so friendly and I immediately felt at ease,
and with subsequent visits around 5:00 to 5:30 P.M. each month, even though she
was probably trying to get ready to leave for the day, she would drop whatever she
was doing to help me out. Over the next 2-3 months, around Mother's Day, I caught
her at the store, and was able to engage in some small conversation, to the point, I
thought almost like a family member, or long-time friend. When I saw the book, The
Meeting Of Anni Adams, on the counter, one day, I glanced at it, while Anni was filling
out my flower order, and it looked very interesting. When she came back, I asked her
about it and what it was about, of course, she said it was a biography about her life, and
she mentioned the war-time and her home in Luxembourg. It did not buy it then, but the
next month, I did, and she was so thrilled, itappeared, and she was so gracious to sign
it along with a few words, "to my favorite customer, God Bless", well, that made me feel
so good, and here again, it was as if I was a close acquaintance, rather than a retail
customer! It was really special!

Well, sorry for being so long-winded, but I wanted to convey my appreciation for this
"work of love", this "work for God", this "work for Anni", and I pray you have God's Blessing and much success with it. It is definitely a work Oprah Winfrey would find
beneficial to her audience on one of her book review programs! Or, even, maybe, Good
Morning America with their book reviews. Naturally, I think it would be a source for a
movie some day, or TV special feature!

Keep up the good work and I look forward to your next publication, or maybe a sequel
to this one.

After having the time to read and re-read this remarkable work, I am amazed that Mr. Story is a first time writer. I came across this book from an article written about it (Mrs. Adams and Mr. Story) in the Florida Catholic Newspaper. While the book is "self-published" (not for long I believe), it is definitely of much more high value than the stream of traditional work I review on the market at present. Although the book has typos and some re-edit work needed, that should not distract from the overall theme, work and glorious story of an astonishing life of a superb lady developed from childhood. Many young ladies around the world could use some lessons from this book. Many of the forthcoming generations could use the lessons from the historical aspect. In fact, I don't find much that anyone couldn't take profit from in reading this book. I give cudos to Mr. Story and he definitely, though needing minor tuning, has the ability to bring words to life and life to words in a picturesque mental format. I believe somewhere therein lies a poet. But for a first outing, I am sure that his future is bright in the literary arts. That is not to take away from the subject of the biography. In fact, I found it almost difficult to call it a biography because it transcends the boundaries of the "Arch-typical" format. Instead, it comes straight from the heart, to the page and then to one's own heart. A definitely good read and deserving of much, much higher attention against the general populous of uninteresting traditionally published books crowding the shelves.

I've sometimes toyed with the idea of writing biographies of everyday, normal people. I think such accounts would be more interesting than you might think. When you pick up the biography of a celebrity, all you're going to read about is all the dirt, some of which might even be true, that the author threw in the mix in order to sell as many books as possible; many of them couldn't care less about the person they're writing about. You rarely learn anything about the biographical subject, and even more rarely do you learn anything about that person's life that you can apply to our own day-to-day existence. And, of course, we're all unique, and most of us have had something exciting and unusual happen to us somewhere along the way. In a sense, The Meeting of Anni Adams is the sort of personal biography I'm going on about. Anni Adams is just your typically sweet elderly lady; certainly, I had never heard of her. Her life, though, is full of important, exciting, sometimes terrifying experiences, tragedies and triumphs, and Lonnie D. Story's written account of that life is as inspirational as it is informative.

Anni Adams was a young girl in Luxembourg when Hitler's forces unleashed their pent-up vengeance against their European neighbors. Luxembourg is a very small country, and the only time you might possibly hear it mentioned in the context of World War II is when someone mentions the Germans passing through it and the other Low Countries on their way to France. This wonderful little country found itself smack dab in the middle of a deadly global conflict, yet - as far as most American history books are concerned - it hardly merits a mention. If nowhere else, though, you can now read a personal account of Luxembourg's tragedy here in these pages. The author describes the harrowing flight of Anna's family to refugee status in France and, eventually, back to occupied Luxembourg, her father's struggles to keep his family together over the next several years in the face of Nazi domination, the ruthless persecution of the Jews (including Anni's best friend from childhood), and even the dangers posed by Allied bombers in their work to defeat the hateful German war machine. This account of Anni's coming of age during the late 1930s and early 1940s offers a most informative window on several relatively unknown aspects of World War II.

Of course, Anni's story didn't end with Hitler's defeat. Having captured the heart of a brave American GI named Charlie Adams, Anni joined countless other European women traveling to the United States as war brides. The book chronicles Anni's difficult adjustment to life in a new country, the joys and sorrows of her growing family, and the really quite extraordinary successes and experiences she enjoyed over the coming years. It turns out that Anni isn't quite the nobody she might appear to be to anyone passing her on the street.

This is an unusual biography, in that it is extremely personal. The author, Lonnie D. Story, worked closely with Anni in putting the details of her life onto paper. He makes no secret of his deep respect and awe for this woman who overcame so much. The most obvious manifestation of his admiration for his biographical subject is the butterfly metaphor he uses to describe her on many occasions. He goes a little overboard in this regard, but it's not a problem because, more than anything else, it demonstrates the passion and assiduous work ethic that fuelled the writing process.

In the end, I have to say that The Meeting of Anni Adams showed me a whole new dimension of World War II, namely its terrible consequences for the innocent, non-Jew civilians of the Low Countries, brought that global war down to a rarely seen personal level, helped me appreciate the deep spirit of the Luxembourg people - who could be occupied physically but never conquered in their hearts, reminded me to celebrate the national ideals that allow anyone coming to America from foreign shores to realize his/her own version of the American Dream, and taught me how to live a better and more successful life, with the true measure of success having nothing to do with dollars and cents.

THE MEETING OF ANNI ADAMS: THE BUTTERFLY OF LUXEMBOURG is a beautiful tribute to a lady who obviously has made a profound impression on one Lonnie D. Story, the author. This is the sort of biographical reportage that is penned by a long-term friend or relative of the subject of the story. Not so in this case: Lonnie Story met Anni Adams in 2003, just a year before the publication of this homage, and while that may seem insufficient time to reflect the power this woman's life story, it also gives evidence of the impact of lives crossing at the right moment.

Anni Adams survived the Nazi occupation of her native Luxembourg, maintaining her sanity and sanctity through that occupation chiefly through her religious faith, and became one of the numerous war brides that entered America seeking the American dream after Europe had been so profoundly scarred by World War II. The adjustment to her new homeland and the impact of her naturalization on the people with whom she has come into contact serves as the basis for this story of the indomitable human spirit. It is a story worth telling and a warm reading experience.

Lonnie Story writes well for a first outing. He seems to have an eye for the path a story must take and certainly pauses frequently enough for descriptions of mood and place and nature that indicate there is a poet within. Some readers may become fatigued by all of the biblical quotations and introduction of religious layering that weighs down the narrative. And at some point the use of the metaphor of Anni Adams as a butterfly unfolding from the 'cocoon' (when in fact MOTHS are housed in cocoons while butterflies would unfold from a chrysalis!) becomes so redundant as to be intrusive. Also, in subsequent books Lonnie Story may realize it is unnecessary to talk down to the reader by providing parenthetical pronunciation guides to names and words: such devices tend to move the book into the textbook arena.

But despite these 'writing flaws', this book is a well-paced, interesting, docudrama approach to the life a woman each of us would love to know. It is indeed a writer's tribute to a muse of heart and soul. Grady Harp, January 2005

This coming Veteran's Day, I am going to remember a woman who was born on November 11th, 1926 at approximately 11:00 pm, Anny Jeanne Neuman was born in Luxembourg. Anny was born 8 years after the war to end all wars had officially ended. The day she was born had been set aside to commemorate peace that the world hoped would last forever. For the first 13 years of her life, Anny grew up in a home where she was loved and nurtured by her hard working parents. She visited relatives in France. She was an inquisitve and happy child who was a light in her family's home. But before she reached her 14th birthday, she was fleeing for her life with her family from the invading German army.

Anny and her family were not Jewish. They were Catholic. But in the initial invasion of Luxembourg, everyone was at risk of being shot on sight. They left behind virtually everything they owned to escape death in May of 1940. They entered France riding in the same type of cattle cars that would eventually be used to transport Jewish people and other 'enemies' of Germany to concentration camps. She had first had experience of what it was like to be in crammed in a train where there was standing room only for four days without food or water. When her family arrived in France, the French helped them as best as they were able, but they were under attack as well and supplies were scarce for everyone. They were given a place to live in while they were there. It was little more than a hovel, but they made the best of it.

In September of 1940, Anny and her family were allowed to return home to Luxembourg under German rule. But it was not the Luxembourg they knew and loved. Fear marched the streets. Friends disappeared in the dark hours of the night. There were rules to be followed. Anny was told she could no longer associate with her best friend who was Jewish. Indoctrination took place in the school as the Germans tried in vain to turn the citizens of Luxembourg to their way of thinking Anny even had to go through a name change to make her name more pleasing to the German conquerors. Her father was forced to fly a German flag from his window, to ignore friends, and to follwo the German rules. He did these things in order to protect his family and to ensure their survival. Anni (her new name) walked a careful line. She was deferential when she needed to be, but she also visited her Jewish friends in secret. She carried messages and packages for what one can only assume to be some type of underground network. She watched, she learned and during years of deprivation and loss, she never gave up. She never lost her sense of who she was or what was important.

Eventually, the Americans came. And the hope that had kept the Neuman family alive (along with many others), was renewed. As the Germans were pushed back and countries regained their freedom, the Neumans rejoiced. Anni found love or maybe I should say love found her. Even though life was better now that the fear had been banished from the streets. It was still a struggle. Europe had been ravaged by war and it was going to take a long time for any sort of normalcy to return to this war stricken land. Food was still scarce as were jobs and all supplies.

But Anni had dreams and the darkness of the occupation had not destroyed them, only reshaped them. And while she did not live happily ever after, she did way more than survive.

I don't want to tell you the end of her story because that would be spoiling the book that I have to share with you. I do want to say that this book has taught me and touched me more than any book that I have read for a long time. While reading it, I felt much the way I did when I saw Schindler's List. I was reading about horrible things and because I was reading them through the eyes of Anni, I understood them way more than I ever have by reading history books in school. I saw this family triumph time and time again. I saw them not fall to bitterness as so many did. Instead they continued to struggle, to hope, and to dream. They helped one another and others as they could during some of the darkest days of our world's history.

We all go through periods of difficulties and how we get through them is a measure of our character and our outlook. Sometimes we feel like no one else has ever dealt with as much as we are. They wouldn't be able to survive! How can we be expected to be in a good humor with all that is going on. Let Anni and her family be your guide. Let their courage lift you up and let their survival give you hope. Read of their struggles, then compare them to your own. Share this book with your older children so they can get a good inside look at World War II. So much is glossed over and forgotten in today's history books. Don't let them forget. Let's prevent history from repeating itself.

Once upon a time, truly not so long ago, to use Mr. Story's metaphor, a dark Iron Eagle spread its talons across Europe bringing insane, unspeakable cruelty; bringing occupation; bringing catastrophic destruction; rending lives with its insatiable appetite for power and dominance.

One of the first countries to be torn by its iron grip was fiercely independent, resilient, and proud Luxembourg.

One of the many millions families to be plagued by the horror pulled up from the depths of the dark side of humans, was that of Albert Neuman of Esch-Sur-Alzette, Luxembourg, whose daughter's life is chronicled in Lonnie D. Story's, The Meeting of Anni Adams: The Butterfly of Luxembourg.. This is an exceptional book; a warm, deeply human story told in the `old-fashioned way' with deep detail, with heart, with soul, with faith, and within its historic framework.

While detail, heart, soul, and faith are all too often missing in modern writing, this author shares the life of Albert Neuman's family, with particular emphasis on Anni, and makes the biographic tale a treasure not to be missed.

It is significant that young Anni is born on Armistice Day, 1926. The armistice lasted only from November, 1918 to September, 1939. At best it was fragile, extremely fragile and punitive, but as populations are wont to do in the day to day world, the world succumbed to complacency; clung tenuously to the idea that the horror that was the War to End All Wars, the Great War, could not possibly be repeated, or, indeed, surpassed.

There was the Great Depression to survive.

There was swing.

And by the time of the New York World's Fair in April of 1939, when Katie Scarlett was beginning to learn of the import of home, hearth, and family, jackbooted soldiers had annexed Austria in the Anschluss, marched into the Sudetenland, and begun the ravaging of Poland.

In May of 1940, while Mr. Smith was giving Washington a lesson in morals and leadership, the Wehrmacht, Luftwaffe, SS, and Gestapo marched into the lives of the Neuman family who were evacuated in cattle cars to France, a harbinger of endless cattle cars to come, only to be sent back to their looted home when the Maginot Line was rendered meaningless by then modern warfare, and those jackboots took France and flew the Swastika on the Arc de triomphe. Anni's story is one of survival; of learning to cope with evil incorporate. Anni and Mr. Story plunge us to the depths of despair, but with his metaphor of Anni as the Butterfly of Luxembourg also fly us high and wide in this wonderful tribute to the resilience of the human spirit.

Read The Meeting of Anni Adams: The Butterfly of Luxembourg,; meet her family; suffer with them and millions upon millions of others. Learn, up close and very personally, of the impact of the insidious ripping away of freedom, step by step, day by day, dictate by dictate, execution by insane wanton execution.

This biography is not only a tribute to Anni, but to all the good, strong members of her nuclear, extended, national, and international family, just as it is to so many millions of others who have lived through the unspeakable, and yet remained who they were at soul-level, not succumbing to flirtation with, nor collaboration with, personified evil.

You will meet those who did the later; but more often you will meet those who stood firm for the sanctity of freedom, of human dignity.

I have called this a tale told in `the old-fashioned way' and gloriously. It is that. It includes personal notes by the author, it includes horror, pain, despair, starvation, joy, justice, injustice, hope, faith, and yes, love too. Anni meets her GI Joe, Charlie Adams, who, and against incredible odds, emerges as caring, as compassionate, as strong a father and husband as Albert Neuman. It is a joy to read of such men and their absolute devotion of family.

Life brings us much; we too often are complacent -- or otherwise occupied -- to see what is being written on the wind, brought to potential catastrophic reality around us. Anni Adams will remind you of that. It will also take you inside the Neuman family and make you question: If this had been me, how well would I have managed?

For The Meeting of Anni Adams: The Butterfly of Luxembourg, a ***** recommendation for Mr. Story's work. A must read. Bravo!

This is the true story of a woman from an oft forgotten and overlooked nation that suffered uniquely during WWII- Luxembourg.

The author vividly describes what my Luxembourgish grandmother also told me about events during the German occupation. It is a sometimes harrowing account about the initial escape from the Germans and later about life under a hated Nazi yoke who insisted Luxembourgers should become German. Anni Adams sounds like a remarkable woman, and the author really captures the essence of what it means to be a proud Luxembourger.

It is easy to like Anni. After a rather slow start to the book that paints a picture of her life, it is difficult to put the book down as you are taken on a journey of adventure, drama, tears and pain. The author employs both butterfly and Christian imagery to highlight the changes in Anni as she struggles to come to terms with the increasing complexity and danger of life in occupied Luxembourg. Her admirable family and her strength of character help Anni overcome the hurdles she faces.

The author obviously researched his subject area well and bonded deeply with his protagonist. By the end of the book, Anni is truly a person you would love to meet.

Just finished reading your book "The Butterfly of Luxembourg". Despite all the hardships you had to endure, I am convinced that you had and still have a very exciting life. Too bad we were unable to get together when you were in Luxembourg. Although I am a few years younger, I did have similar experiences during the war. We had to leave for France on May 10th as refugees. I was only five then, but I do recall some bad experiences although not quite as bad as yours.
A lady in New York who worked for the Luxembourg Consulate General received your book from a friend in Florida who saw it, I guess, in your flower shop. Small world. I, of course, purchased it in Luxembourg at the "Messageries du livre"
Congratulations for having the courage to write the book and for having such a phantastic memory.
Warmest regards from Luxembourg

This book is an excellent choice for those who love a bit of history in their reading choice. From the beginning to the end, you find that Anni keeps her hope for a better world for herself and her family, even though the circumstances seem to hold no hope for them. The perseverance and strength that she and her family show really sticks with you while reading and makes you want to be more like them. I really enjoyed this book and am sure that you will, too!

This story is so very interesting from the end to the beginning, because that is almost the way it should be read. Having finished the book, it seems almost novelistic, but it is a true story. Anni Adams lived a very unusual life, encountered and survived nearly unimaginable experiences. What was most impressive was the theme of hope and faith that she carried through it all. The author weaves a tale of reality but presents it in a novel fashion. Although the work needs some serious consideration for editing, the theme is fluid and entrancing. His ability to "take" the reader to a relatively unknown country is highly respectable. By the end, although a slow start, I could not resist the temptation to return to the beginning and let the new knowledge permeate the second read. The research and presentation are highly admirable.