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I am a published essayist, poet, and playwright, but I consider Through Different Eyes, the story of my grandmother Anna’s immigrant journey to America in 1903, to be one of my most satisfying writing achievements.

As a child I visited my Bohemian grandmother regularly. During those times she shared with me, her first American grandchild, a precious oral history about her strivings to become "American."

By 1992, long after my grandmother’s death in 1956, I  determined that those stories should not be forgotten. I began to build on them with years of in-depth research, seeking to "walk in Anna's shoes" through her heroic journey.  

Research led me to Ellis Island, the Tenement Museum in New York City, and the Czech Republic. There, in the historic town of Kutna Hora, I discovered Anna’s 1889 baptism records. They had survived two world wars and the communist occupation. The Records Clerk and I both shed tears.

My long quest led me to a valuable insight. Through Different Eyes not only developed into a vibrant story about the survival of the human spirit, it helped me to understand the old-world impact that Anna had on those who came after her. She taught us well the meaning of responsibility and steadfast loyalty to family.

Readers who know little of their immigrant heritage tell me that Anna’s story helps them visualize what it must have been like for their ancestors to break away from everything familiar, and to settle their family lines in America.

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