WITH GOD'S HELP ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE

In this debut memoir, a Lithuanian woman recounts her immigration to the United States and her life’s work, driven by her Catholic faith.

Born in 1930 on a farm in small Bartininkai, Lithuania, Cipkus experienced a quaint county childhood with parents who instilled the importance of her religion, but she was aware that “the war was getting closer and closer every day.” Eventually, the family was shuffled from one refugee camp to another in Germany; along the way, Cipkus became separated from her father; her brother, Alfonsas; and her younger sister, Zina. The rest of the family eventually found themselves at the Seligenstadt Displaced Persons Camp, caught in postwar tensions between occupying forces. These gave way to an opportunity to leave Europe and come to America in 1949 with the family landing in Omaha, Nebraska, after reuniting with Zina. Cipkus’ teenage years were spent helping her mother and working in a hospital kitchen and a meatpacking plant before finding better employment at a Cleveland clothing company. There, she met her future husband, Stanley, and founded a real estate business. Later, Cipkus was drawn back into the struggles of fellow Lithuanian immigrants—particularly elderly people with health and communication problems. After writing a 1981 letter about them to President Ronald Reagan, Cipkus became involved in nonprofit and Housing and Urban Development funding for community projects, once again summoning her religious faith and inner resolve to overcome challenges. Cipkus’ straightforward prose style sometime feels emotionally flat, but it serves her well in narrating the horrors of World War II, as when she simply and effectively relates that “During the war, there was no real time to grieve.” There are also plenty of moving moments throughout the text, as when she expresses her gratefulness to Midwestern bus drivers who were kind to her soon after her arrival in the United States, or her shock at losing her adult son later in life. But Cipkus’ straight-to-the-point manner also results in some lengthy but unengaging summaries, as in her account of the complicated bureaucracy of HUD. Still, her overall, historic story of resilience will appeal to both Christian and secular readers.

A remarkable, if unevenly executed, story of grit and tenacity.