An Extraordinary Will to Survive

In the summer of 1933, at the height of the Great Depression, a two-year-old girl and her twin sister endured one of the most horrific betrayals a child can endure. As they clung to their beloved father, he led them to a grim brick building: St. Vincent’s orphanage. As Emma and Wanna wept, arms outstretched, begging their father not to go . . . he abandoned them. They grew up within those gloomy walls until they reached high school, when they were sent to a strict, unforgiving Catholic boarding school. It seemed that there was no hope for the future. But Emma was determined not to let her bleak situation break her. Fast-forward fifty years, and Emma has found light and love in her husband, children, and grandchildren. This is the story of a loving, caring, compassionate woman with a core of steel, and how she reclaimed her life from those who threw it away, to stand proud as “the woman everyone should know,” according to her local newspaper. Inspirational, compelling, and heartbreaking, this biography will give you new perspective not only on the defining historical events of the 20th century, but about what it means to be resilient and human.