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On a morning in June, 1941, cattle cars pulled into the train station in Vaivara, a village in Estonia, and the Soviet army rounded up, not cows, but citizens, and took them east to Siberia. "They take the educated ones," said a local policeman on that day when Lydia Vahter walked into the woods and into hiding, leaving nine year old Imbi and her grandmother to flee to the family farm in the north.
Would Imbi ever see her mother again? Or would the Soviet soldiers find her in the forest?
This is the story of Imbi and the members of her family who struggled to survive a brutal time in their country's history. It is a testament to the resilience of a young girl whose father told her at the age of five, "You are in charge, Imbi. Take care of your mother."
The occupation of Estonia came first from the Soviets, then the Germans. Then the Soviets retook the country in 1945 and maintained control for the next 50 years.
Through this upheaval, Imbi minded her father's words and learned to watch the signals in her war-torn world. The result is this story…a true story as told to the author by Imbi Peebo Truumees who found her way to the United States after a childhood filled with soldiers, night bombings and narrow escapes.
Her story represents many hundreds of thousands of refugees from the eastern European countries taken at the end of World War II whose stories should also be told.
About the author
Nancy Burke studied writing at the Rutgers' Newark MFA Creative Writing Program and teaches writing at Montclair State University and New Jersey Institute of Technology. Her earlier work includes: From the Abuelas' Window (2005), If I Could Paint the Moon Black (2014) and Only the Women are Burning (2020). Her short fiction has appeared in Pilgrim: A Journal of Catholic Experience and Meat for Tea: The Valley Review. Her story, At the Pool, (included in this collection) was a Finalist in the J.F. Powers Prize for Short Fiction at Dappled Things Magazine. She lives in Little Falls, NJ.
