Thanks to everyone who comes to me with a story—all my historical novels are based on true stories people have told me.
Thanks to NB Publishers, and specifically Etienne Bloemhof and Eben Pienaar, for their help in publishing all three of the books in the trilogy.*
Thanks to Jan-Jan, who virtually has a research library in his apartment. I only have to ask, “Jan-Jan, please lend your mother a book on the persecution of the Jews in Italy during the Second World War,” and he will produce a variety to choose from.
Thanks to my cousin Leonie Nel, who contracted a severe degree of infantile paralysis at the age of three. The pain suffered by the character Leonora, the giving up of her dreams, and the ultimate acceptance of her new body with its limitations were based on what Leonie experienced in her own life. Thanks as well to various other polio victims for snippets from their own lives that I could weave into my story.
Thanks to Dr. John Pauw, who practiced in the 1950s and could supply me with background information. And especially to my mother, Alida Moerdyk, who worked as a nursing sister and can describe to me the exact treatment and medicines for any disease, such as pneumonia. What a blessing that, at the age of eighty-eight, she still has the same quick mind she had as a young working woman in the 1940s and ’50s!
Thanks to my pharmacist daughter, Madeleine, for her proofreading, very useful feedback, and especially help with medical terms and concepts.
As always, a very special thanks to my good friend and excolleague Elize Gerber, not only for proofreading the manuscript, but also for being my soundboard and writing partner.
Thanks to good friends who understand, even during vacations: Suzette and Christo, Fanie and Wourine.
Thanks to my husband, Jan, for his help with classical music and especially for continuing to love his writing wife.
If I have a gift, it is a pure blessing—the greatest thanks go to my heavenly Father.
—Irma Joubert