Ilonka Venier Alexander’s first story appeared very soon after I began my blog. She found one of my early posts; the one about discovering my own Jewish family, which prompted her to contact me as a kindred soul. Ilonka and I have stayed in touch over the years while she began writing primarily about the world of her renowned grandfather. . . . Read More “Ilonka’s Story – The Sequel”
The “Shanghai Twelve”! That’s what I named a group of very talented European refugees who escaped from China only days before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.
But who were they? And how and why were they able to escape from Shanghai just before December 7, 1941? . . . Read More “Who Were The Shanghai Twelve?”
Part 1 introduced the notes I took in 1993 regarding my mother’s mental state nearly fifty years after she’d been institutionalized. That’s when she finally revealed to me the secrets within the netherworld that she had created inside her head.
Part 1 also introduced the “Heroes” or “Good Guys”, who were some of the inhabitants of her secret place. . . . Read More “Life with an Insane Parent – Part 2”
In 1944 my mother suffered a severe emotional breakdown, and was committed to a mental hospital in Compton, CA.
Although released seven months later, she never fully recovered.
But it would be another 50 years before she finally allowed me into her secret nether world, the place into which she frequently retreated after she returned home. . . . Read More “ Life with an Insane Parent – Part 1”