This is the life account of my happy but interrupted childhood in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (feudal system, fascism, post-war struggles with Tito's Yugoslavian Communism), my journey from my homeland to Germany and, finally, my immigration to Canada (democracy!).
Marshall Tito was a Communist leader for the partisans, resisting German and Italian occupation in the territory of Yugoslavia (1941-'45). He ruled the country until his death in the early '80s. This was actually foretold to me when I was seven years old by an old gypsy woman who frequently visited my Grandma Baker by reading her palm and then mine, where a long road of adventure and a very hard but successful life began, filled with all the gifts and good friends that led to many rewarding enterprises and a beautiful family and home.
I was blessed and lucky: a community pioneer, active in sports, a member of community organizations, builder of a Catholic Church, married to a beautiful wife, father of two lovely daughters. And then, years later, tragedy struck my family. First, my wife and I separated and I became Mr. Mom. Then my older daughter Tania got mauled by a tiger and died, leaving two children, Adrienne and Nicholas. Nine years later, my younger daughter Vesna was murdered, and to top it all off I was diagnosed with terminal bone cancer: 8-12 months to live.
I survived it all. Eight months later, my doctors, Dr. Kay and Dr. Miller, called me a miracle. I was born on November 9, 1931. This is where it all began, and the gypsy woman did not miss very much.
