reveal things we didn’t know, or maybe simply forgot, about our family history.  The letters are provocative – stimulating both thought and questions.  Most of the questions remain unanswered.   A regrettable and shameful lack of discussion with our parents and grandparents caused us to lose this history.  My father and my Aunt Amelia tried to find some of the missing pieces by translating letters that were written in a unique German dialect that was changed by the many years living in Russia.   On my second reading of the translations, I was struck by the amazing stories that lived in those letters.  For example, I came to realize that my Grandmother left her entire family in Russia, and that when she left for America, she was eight months pregnant with her first child.   The letters tell us that my grandparents wanted to return to Russia as late as 1915.  Was a promise made to take her back to her family?  Did Grandfather want to return after he made his fortune in America?  Or …   Three of my Grandfather’s sisters stayed in Russia – why?   One of those sisters, my Great Aunt Helena, wrote several of the letters telling that she wanted to join her family in America.  She told us about wars, famines, deportations, and the ultimate sadness of missing her family in America.  She reluctantly begged for money to buy food.  She asked for clothes – pants, shirts, and underwear.   Aunt Helena struggled to stay alive in Russia.  She continued her quest to leave, and then … her letters to family in America stopped coming – why?   My father and Aunt Amelia shared their labor of love with family.  I know they wanted these stories to be kept alive.  They wanted the stories to be circulated.  They wanted to find answers, some truths.    Father and Aunt Amelia are gone now.  Grandma and Grandpa are gone.  Aunt Helena and her sisters are gone.  Grandma Haas never saw her family in Russia again.   While writing this fictionalized story, I sensed the presence of all these beautiful people.  I sensed their direction.  They are so much a part of “Solotoye.”  They became an unforgettable part of me.   And so, through “Solotoye Russia:  Meadowlark Songs and Forgotten Wrongs,” I scatter Aunt Helena’s papers – her letters to family in America – to all those wanting to know her story and that of her family in Russia and America.   And because so many questions remain, I told the story as it was to me, using my imagination while welcoming their direction.