And her children shall rise up and call her blessed. Memories of my grandma come to me most everyday. This woman of small stature and kind heart, raised me until I was six years old. As young girl of seventeen she braved the voyage to America from behind the Iron Curtain on her own. Everything she owned was in a small wicker basket that now sits on my hearth. She spoke only her Lithuanian tongue and at the point of departure had her name and destination written on a small tag pinned to her dress. The basket contained several small loaves of bread from the bakery she had worked in and they would sustain her on this perilous journey. As any pretty young girl traveling alone she was haressed with indecent comments and lusting eyes. Fortunately her ignorance of the English language became a protector of emotions. Conditions were atrocious and sea sick passengers reaked from the after effects of the rolling maine. Cold and shivering Eva held back her tears of regret and focused on the jouneys end and the promise of marriage to a man ten years her senior she had never met. Alex her older brother had gone to America two years prior and had met a fellow coal miner he thought would be suitable for marriage. Luxury of choice was not the case in the early 1900's. As the ship approached Ellis Island the passengers were jubilant and Eva too felt her heart leap with excitement. The promise of America, the land of the free and the brave had arrived.

Ellis Island looked so beautiful and the figure of the French Monument almost seemed to have a twinkle in her eye. The warning of yet another ordeal all the passengers must undergo. Quarantine. TO BE CONTINUED:

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