Author's Personal Reflections about Writing The Unveiling

Although this book is fiction, real people provided the inspiration for most of its characters.  Most of the events actually happened. In writing the story, I filled in gaps in personal accounts, adding dialogue to try to recapture the voices of the people so vivid in my memory.

When I was a child, my mother and grandmother often spoke of their lives in the shtetl of csarist Russia, the attacks endured by their community during the Russian revolution, and their dangerous escape to America.  I always found it amazing that they survived, and I vowed that some day I would write about their experiences.

My mother’s youthful dream of an education could not be fulfilled, and her marriage to a brilliant man from a respected family resulted in more hardship when he became mentally ill. The sense of loss and shame had a profound impact upon my brother, sister and me. My mother's resilience and determination, along with the support of  others in the extended family, enabled us to fulfill many dreams. 

I wrote this book to celebrate my mother’s courage and to demonstrate the healing that takes place when we free ourselves from the secrecy and stigma too often surrounding the mental illness of loved ones. 

Restored synagogue in Skvira, Ukraine




 Extended family before a wedding, 
Roberts Street, Hill District, Pittsburgh



My mother and I on Roberts Street