Angelic Tarasio

About me:

I was born in 1952 in Ukraine, part of the former Soviet Union. My father was a high ranking military officer in the Soviet army, and my mother was a housewife. Being a single child in the family I grew in warm atmosphere of love and care. My parents tried their best to develop my skills and talents. From five years of age, I remember myself in a tight schedule of different activities, such as musical school, the studio of young actors with acting, dancing and reciting by heart long poems; sport activities with gymnastics, running, skating and skiing. Every Sunday I had one hour of leisure time, playing chess with my father.

In 1959 I became a student of one of the best schools in our region, where the talented and knowledgeable teachers took us in the world of fascinating knowledge. I can be honest, saying that from ten years of age my teachers and parents motivated me to write. I was an editor of the school newspaper and the high school newsletter. Most of all I enjoyed to write my personal journal. My daily events were recorded in the form of poems and short stories. On Saturdays, my parents arranged the family candle lit gatherings, where I read out loud my first literary works.

During the school years, I participated and won multiple essay competitions in Ukrainian and Russian literature. The language teachers encouraged me to undergo the university studies in journalism and creative writing.

In 1969 I graduated from high school and being interested in studying the foreign languages and literature, I continued my studies of German and English and graduated in 1977 with a diploma and degree, as a language specialist of both languages and literature.

The years of under and post graduate schools were the most intensive in my life. I was married and became a mother of my son Roman. My schedule became three times busier, but there was no any interesting exhibition, performance, concert or a book that did not reach my attention.

From 1977 to 1988 I worked as a teacher of foreign languages in one of the Ukrainian high schools and specialized in teaching the number of subjects in foreign languages. I would never forget my room of the German and English literature. The talented artists painted wonderful portraits of world-known authors.

I tried to perform each lesson in a way so that my students became the participants of a wonderful show. Who could be bad in it? The world of words and phrases became as interesting as a world of grammar phenomena and literature. Throughout my professional career I continued to enjoy writing in a journal exercising my english skills in creative writing. It was not only my favorite leisure interest; it became the preferred hobby of my best students.

In 1988 my family immigrated to the United States where for five years my husband and I were fighting for the life of our daughter Tatiana. Seven surgeries with one clinical death and numerous complications proved the words of my mother-in-law: "Ask the Father Almighty, and He will help in His miraculous way."

Our life dictated new requirements and in the United States I added to my profession the Diplomas in Holistic medicine and Nutrition.

In 2007 I began to write the family saga, a trilogy called "God's Miracles", an alternate historical and inspirational novel.

In Book I: main character, Maria Kotyk, was born in western Ukraine. In 1940, she graduated from medical school in France and after engagement to a noble Frenchman, arrived home. Dramatic political changes in her native land and tragedy of Nazi occupation pushed Maria in a whirlpool of vicious events. With Jewish people she was transported to concentration camp, "as a raw material" for Nazi experiments. Maria avoided execution, but she went through cruel torments and life-threatening ordeals. She prayed and God saved her.

In Book II: a new visit to Ukraine in 1946 started for a pregnant Maria and her husband with tortures in NKVD (pre-KGB). Innocent couple was sentenced for 12 years of imprisonment in Siberia where their first son was born and kept for 10 years. They released the family from the camps, but did not issue them French passports and forbade their return to France. Her husband was murdered and she and her sons were nearly killed. Maria prayed and God created miracles.

In Book III: Maria struggled to live, being homeless with kids. In 1962, Maria went to a monastery in Moscow where nuns suggested her to meet Leonid Brezhnev, a new leader of the country. He assisted Maria with work authorization and housing. Maria prayed and God helped.

Mother Maria described all the events in her diary that I was honored to read. She wanted me, her daughter-in-law, to write a book about God's miracles that happened in lives of regular people.

Angelic Tarasio

Florida, USA

2008

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