Overcoming and Adapting

This memoir is the story of a young girl who survived Nazi Germany and emigrated to the U.S. with her mother in 1950. Rather than finding her dream of becoming a star in Hollywood, she found hardship and was forced to work in a plant nursery at age 15. Married at 16, Ingrid’s husband took her to live in a trailer in the woods of North Florida. There was no electricity or running water.

Ingrid was determined to escape this hard life. As soon as she could, she went to vocational school and earned a secretarial diploma. After she found a job, she was planning to end her unhappy marriage, but instead had to face the death of her mother and unplanned pregnancy. When she finally left the marriage with her two-year-old child and no money, it was the hardest thing she ever did.

Her second husband introduced her to sailing and fishing, hiking and camping, and four years Ingrid lived with him on a sailboat. The marriage, although filled with love and often happiness, was turbulent and also resulted in a divorce. The dissolution of this marriage left Ingrid in emotional turmoil and financial stress. Again, she had to overcome hardship, but she persevered.

On the cover: The Rathaus (town hall) with its famous Glockenspiel in Munich Germany