Red Is for Roses: A Cold War Memoir

Some decades ago a man fled for his life swimming across the Danube River. Life behind the Iron Curtain was rife with pain and fear. Red seemed to paint swatches across moments in his life. Communism love heart-break. Apples formed his early memory and way of life. Strawberries tore him away from his home in Bulgaria. Roses in his New York greenhouse helped heal wounds caused by lifes cruelties. As with her father red also seemed to weave through Lisas life. Cranberries over Thanksgiving reignited the longing to find her family placing this desire in Gods hands. Poppies bloomed amidst the revival of a newfound family. Cherries demonstrated the unfailing strength of Lisas father and how what was once lost was now found. The last time Lisa saw her father she was 11. Yet the yearning to see her family restored never waned. It took years until finally a letter arrived in a language she couldnt understand. Decades later a leaf appeared on a genealogy website. Lisa discovered she had only scratched the surface of her family an ocean and a continent away.