The Kulak's Daughter

It's a face I didn't know well--my mother's face when she was an eleven year old girl. I'd not seen this photo until 2000 when a distant relative found the photo and mailed it as a gift calendar.

At first I was afraid to look at that image of my mom as a child because it was obviously too painful for her to look at. She hid it--and I respected her pain. Gradually, however, I would peek at it whenever I visited her apartment. I got to know that little girl by asking questions. After all, I had two young daughters of my own and I was very aware of just how vulnerable little girls are.

Later, I made a copy of that photo (and of another one) and hung the two over my bed. I stared at that family until those eyes were etched into my mind. And now I know the story. And it's going to be a book. And my mom's photo--that young kulak girl--is on the cover!

My new book of historical fiction, “The Kulak’s Daughter” will be published in 2009 by Blooming Tree Press.
Read an excerpt here.

A few years ago, while enjoying a family Christmas dinner my youngest daughter was getting a little rambunctious. My mother, rather than scolding her, started telling a story about when she misbehaved as a child. It was hard for me to imagine my elderly mother as a naughty child, but her story of the secret Christmas tree became the first chapter of The Kulak's Daughter. The stand-alone story won third prize in The Writers' Union of Canada's short story contest in 2003.
Following the death of my father in 1993, I realized he took from me his stories--forever--and I regret this loss. Since then I have encouraged my mother to share the stories she and my father had tried so hard to forget.