How Long Does Exile Last?

Abstract

Personal experience as a refugee from Latvia after WWII is reflected on 50 years after the event, prompted by observations of other foreign women visiting a hair salon in contemporary WI. The author speaks of a continuing hauntededness that she perceives in herself & sees reflected in the eyes of these other exiled women. She describes her longing to speak her native language & the attempts she has made to find opportunities to do so, eg, by attending Latvian church services. She recounts an episode while at a church social event that involved her coming to the aid of the pastor, who appeared to be being threatened by a gun-toting man. It is in this moment, she believes, that she experienced a "miracle" & transcended the fears that accompany exiled women. K. Hyatt Stewart