The Rings of My Tree: A Latvian Woman's Journey [Paperback]

Jane E. Cunningham (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 14, 2004

A young Latvian woman caught in a whirlwind of war. A story of extraordinary strength and honesty...an insight into daily living inside Nazi Germany for those forced to fly before they had wings of courage.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This is the story that needed to be told and now needs to be absorbed." -- Violeta Kelertas, Ph.D., University of Illinois at Chicago, past president of the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies

"This story makes a strong contribution to Latvian history and the history of women. It deserves the widest possible readership." -- Agate Nesaule, author of A Woman in Amber

About the Author

After thirty years in the aerospace industry and international marketing, the author retired and tutored adults in English-as-a-Second-Language and continues to study consciousness and the extraordinary within the ordinary. A graduate of St. Joseph College, Jane lives and writes in Connecticut.

Product Details

• Paperback: 172 pages
• Publisher: Llumina Press (July 14, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595263489
• ISBN-13: 978-1595263483
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #444,967 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read this story, and find out the story of your own family!, August 14, 2005

By 

Silvija Vecrumba - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Rings of My Tree: A Latvian Woman's Journey (Paperback)

The Rings of My Tree is a well-told story of one young woman's journey starting in pre-WWII Latvia. We follow Jane's friend Mirdza as she is ripped from her beloved home in Liepaja (which was also my mother's home at the time the war started), is separated from family and friends, and ends up, like so many of our own family and relatives, in a Displaced Persons camp in Germany. For those of us that are Latvian, it is a familiar story. However, many Latvians of my generation, including myself, regrettably never heard the whole story from their parents, for one reason or another--most often it was because they were memories they did not want to recall, or that they simply wanted to "spare us." Still, over the years, I had gathered bits and pieces of my parents' separate experiences, and reading Mirdza's account helped me put those pieces into context and understand them better.

Regardless of what your own history is with the WWII and immigrant experience, The Rings of My Tree is well worth reading. As I mentioned, the story is familiar, and there are no great surprises--but I found peace in Mirdza's quiet strength as I read this book. Before reading Mirdza's tale, I had read book reviews that described Mirdza as submissive; I don't agree at all. She was assertive when necessary and smart enough not to make waves in the face of dire consequences, even when threatened with death. In her new home she learned how to get along for the greater good. Like all of the brave Latvians that survived the ravages of war, the camps, and then started over as immigrants in new countries, Mirdza showed great courage and tenacity. She was able to survive separation from family, countless atrocities, a bombing injury that left her with a permanent limp, and extreme prejudice from her new community after finally making it to America-ostracized as a "German" since she had arived from Germany and spoke English with an accent-all without a single trace of bitterness. To face every day anew, with quiet inner strength, required the heights of courage.

I'm writing this review from a personal perspective for a reason. I've corresponded with the author several times. Moreover, reading the book motivated me to finally sit down with my father and interview him about his experiences during and after the war. My parents had always been reluctant to talk about those times; it was just too painful. My mother passed away several years ago, and my father always looked forward to my monthly visits and loved to chat so I had a feeling he'd be ready to tell his story. He agreed, but he wasn't feeling well, so I put it off. Unfortunately, he passed away Christmas Day, 2004. Now his story will never be told. So I urge you, fellow Latvians, read this book. If you have stories of your own to tell, tell them, and if you have parents living to share their stories, have them do so while there is still time, that is, if they're at all willing.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Rings of My Tree, November 27, 2004

By 

S. Buchbinder (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Rings of My Tree: A Latvian Woman's Journey (Paperback)

My mother escaped from Latvia in 1944. Her path to freedom, through Poland, Berlin, and Hanau, was very much like that described so well in this book. This book tells a compelling story of Mirdza. It is a must read for anyone who is interested in the Baltics, or in what life was like as a refugee during WW II. It is down to earth, highly readable, and heart warming. Once you start reading it, you can't put this book down. This book also is inspiring when life seems hard.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars And My Family Tree Also..., December 22, 2004

By 

Zinta Aistars "Writer & Editor" (Portage, MI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Rings of My Tree: A Latvian Woman's Journey (Paperback)

The monsters and beasts in my childhood bedtime stories were not imaginary. They were flesh and blood and in human form, and usually they wore the uniforms of the Red Army. They marched in my parents' memories, relentless and cruel, driving them from their homes in Latvia during World War II. My parents were refugees, displaced to camps in Germany in the 1940's while awaiting sponsors for their immigration to the United States. Although I was born in the States, I have known two homes, two cultures, two languages, two histories, and the stories on which I was raised have become a part of my ethnic inheritance.

Reading Jane E. Cunningham's book about another Latvian woman's personal journey as a refugee from Latvia to the United States during the war was like hearing the stories of my parents all over again. What amazed me, however, were the accuracy of perception and a to-the-core understanding of an experience the author could not have shared. Cunningham, after all, is not Latvian. She is an Irish-American living in Connecticut, a teacher, and no closer to the Latvian experience than, well, crossing the street, as it turned out. For 45 years, Cunningham has known and befriended her neighbor, Mirdza Vaselnieks Labrencis. Now a woman in her mid-eighties, Mirdza has shared her stories about her home in Latvia and her journey to America with her most attentive neighbor, resulting in this slender but powerful book. Cunningham has even written it as a first-person account-a daring move, but one at which she was surprisingly successful. In nearly every detail and perception, the story is Mirdza's. It is also the story of most all Latvian refugees.

To survive-"where there is life, there is hope"-Mirdza undergoes a psychological shifting in her spirit and in her psyche. "Inside my still anesthetized cocoon, the soul of the self is changing. This forced-by-war metamorphosis was a lonely place to be, and yet it seemed to be a place of unconscious, unfolding change that surfaced through a new, foreign determination that surprised me. Survival is a funny thing... tied to self-respect. The greedy monster ministers of war had separated my family, killed some of my friends, issued a warrant for my life, bombed my house... raped and pillaged my country and took away the normal use of my left side... the caterpillar in my mind was losing its slow-crawling legs and I have no idea when the wings of courage developed, but there was a flapping inside of me." (pgs. 31-32)

Pushed to its limits, human nature shows its true colors and true fiber. A frightened girl emerges a strong, determined young woman, doing what she must to survive and to establish some semblance of a new life for herself. It is not in her nature to be bold, Cunningham writes of her heroine, nor is it the nature of a nation to be subjected to the depravity of war. Those who cannot adapt-die. Those who find wings and tap into a core wisdom of resilience-live. Mirdza makes a decision to live.

To survive one does what one must, sometimes shutting off the mind, other times shutting off the heart. When required, both are called back into action. Cunningham writes of Mirdza's life in German refugee camps with a compassionate honesty, never glossing over Mirdza's very human moments of weakness, but letting her moments of personal heroism quietly shine in their own illumination.

Cunningham's account of a story so far, surely, from her own as an Irish-American living in Connecticut is testimony of the ability to bridge two cultures and two very different perspectives on life to form very human bonds of friendship. This slender volume is highly recommended for anyone willing to take a moment to appreciate what makes us all different... and what makes us all the same.