One Woman's Life

Ona Kartanas has lived through extraordinary circumstances. Born in Lithuania during World War I she was orphaned at an early age and struggled to find her way in life. She experienced the Soviet and Nazi occupations of Lithuania during World War II, was interrogated at gunpoint on more than one occasion, lived in displaced persons camps in Germany after the war, and immigrated to Colombia, South America. Eventually she and her family immigrated to the United States. This book offers a series of prose vignettes that chronicle her story of loss, war, displacement, poverty, and struggle. Ona's life highlights the strength of the human spirit and the human capacity to not only survive, but to triumph.