Stories of My Life

Ramona Mitchell's Stories of my Life is her uniquely rewarding autobiography of heart, family, struggle, and art set on the real-life stages of WWII Germany, her dangerous passage from Europe's turmoil to the desert and color of mid-century Cairo, to the artistic and academic community of Chicago, and her return to desert in southwest New Mexico. Mitchell gives us her torn childhood and the escape from wartime Europe; teen years of having to choose between Olympic swimming and painting, her great twin passions. She gives us the growth from girl to woman, while offering the spiritual growth which moved her toward Yoga and Vedic Chant, and the fabulous journey from the world of her mother's professional artistry, to her own. To this she adds the great, colorful map of her family, her friends, from multiple cultures and nations. The loves in her life, the international travels, joys, and survivals, and the vast array of her paintings and sculptures give us a history of many lives, many lands, and a creativity that has spanned decades, made from cultures and lands that have since changed to be almost unrecognizable. Here's how to love another person's lifetime, all in one book. --Roger Steinmetz