Anna & Her Daughters

Anna & Her Daughters by Josephine Bolechala

In 1939, in a small village in Poland, Anna Kowal’s meagre ten hectares comprised a straw-thatched, blue-washed cottage with an earthen-clay floor, an outhouse, a modest barn and a chicken coop. It was hers alone – since her husband left to find them a better life in Canada. Beyond her land an ancient chestnut tree led to Anna’s “forbidden forest” – and a refuge for the hard times the war would bring. With only the food and income her acreage provided and the packages sent by her husband from Canada, raising two daughters, a niece and one head-strong son, was a struggle, but their faith kept them strong and stalwart.

The harshness and tragedies of war revealed the true characters of her family members and provided the impetus for another journey and the new lives which they had not prepared for nor dreamed possible.

ISBN: 978-1-77257-423-4 (PB) – Published October 2024