I had dreams for a better life, but when you live in abject poverty and know nothing else, it is difficult to realize the possibilities that exist.

The generations of German families here once had hope, but it had long since died and people simply focused on survival. Laughter made surviving more bearable. This was especially true for my grandparents who had spent their entire lives in this sad and lonely village. My sisters and I didn’t fully understand how terrible things were, for we were still young. My parents were somewhere in between, in the process of moving from hopeful to bitter. If we weren’t careful, my sisters and I would fall into the same trap. Despite the fact that I tried to be hopeful, I was also a realist and I never lost sight of who I really was, a poor German peasant growing up in a dreary village called Grimm located in a cruel area known as the Russian Steppes.