First, it’s a dream. Then, it’s hard work that stretches over months and years, peppered with sheer frustration. Doubts creep into your sleepless nights. Who will want to read this? Who cares? You don’t think you can do it. Somehow you go on. You’re too far into it to give up.

The day comes when the dream and hard work materialize into a book. A real book. I’s on Amazon. CUBA, ADIOS. It’s there. Under my own name. I wrote it. Wow! I have to pinch myself. Friends say they “can’t wait to read it.” An author friend interviews me on her blog http://www.susanbernhardt.com. Positive comments follow. Another author writes a blog about books dealing with the same topic and includes mine next to Eire’s Waiting for Snow in Havana.. Not too shabby. He also interviews me on his radio/blog. Click on the following link to read the blog and listen to the interview:

http://cantotalk.blogspot.com/2014/08/its-good-thing-that-more-and-more-cuban.html.

CUBA, ADIOS is about my experience in Operation Pedro Pan, an underground effort that brought to America more than 14,000 Cuban children between the years 1960 and 1962. In broader terms, the book serves as an ode to parents who made the ultimate sacrifice: saying goodbye to children who would have been indoctrinated by Castro’s communism had they stayed in Cuba. The parents were brave to let their children go. The children, ranging in age from 5 to 18, were confused and homesick, and although not all had the best experience here, they were grateful to a country that opened their arms and hearts to them. Eventually, most of those children were reunited with their families. A few didn’t.

I’m so thankful I didn’t give up and to have my book available on Amazon in a digital format. The print version will come out in two to three weeks. In CUBA, ADIOS, I honor not only the children who participated in the Pedro Pan exodus but also their families. I hope the theme of saying goodbye to our past, country, families resonates with all of you.

If you get a chance to read CUBA, ADIOS, send me your comments. Tell me what you thought about it.