Rita's Endorsements

GOODBYE AMERICA
ENDORSEMENTS

Goodbye America is a story about two fatherlands and homesickness as seen through the eyes of a little girl and retold when she is an old woman. It explains how small tokens of love can seem giant, big problems can be overcome, and how everyone needs to believe in hope. This is an exciting read for both the American and Slovak public.
Dr. Lubor Matejko
Department Head, Russian Language and Literature
Comenius University
Bratislava, Slovakia

_____________________________

Goodbye America: A Grandmother’s Story is a personal history that recounts the quintessential immigrant story of the American dream...While hardship abounds…story manages to convey a joyful mood by stressing the importance of family, love, loyalty and family bonds…An excellent read… Recommended for public and school libraries.
Mitzi Thomas
Ponte Vedra Beach Branch Manager
Ponte Vedra, Fl.

______________________________

Goodbye America is a Thanksgiving story that makes the reader reflect on hope, history and heritage. A treasured story for all ages.
Caryn Suarez
Author/Poet/President – Promoting Outstanding Writers- Past President of Florida Writers Association

______________________________

This is a vivid historical novel that brings the reader a very real picture of life as an immigrant/emigrant on two continents. I particularly liked the way each “era” in Anna’s life is introduced…After more than thirty years of being a librarian and reviewing books for purchase and evaluating children's books for publication, I enthusiastically recommend this "from the life" story by Malie to be used in schools as well as for recreational reading.
Marianne Stein
Founder of three European libraries, librarian, book reviewer
New Jersey Library Planning Committee

______________________________

Goodbye America is an endearing memoir of immigrant longing and hardship.
It tugs at the heart strings like a finely played violin.
Robyn Leslie
Children’s Author, Speaker, Reviewer
Teacher, Bolles Academy, Jacksonville, Florida

________________

Baba's saga spurs new tradition

By MARK WOODS, The Times-Union
Originally created 11/18/2007

It was a Thanksgiving tradition for Rita Malie's family.

Malie, her two children and two granddaughters all would travel from Florida to Ohio to spend the holiday with her mother, Anna. Or, as the children call her, Baba.

Baba would greet Morgan and Madison, inevitably doing what every adult throughout history has done to every young child at a family reunion: comment on how much they have grown since last year.

"What's your mother feeding you these days, plant food?" she would say.

Then each year, while the turkey cooked, she would tell her great-granddaughters a story. Her story.

It begins in 1919. She was 4 years old. Her family had been part of a massive emigration from Slovakia to Ohio. Her father, her Deddo, had found work in a steel mill. She was going to school, settling into her new homeland. And then the flu pandemic hit, killing tens of millions around the world - including her father.

With four children to care for, her mother decided to move back to Europe.
"So I said goodbye to Deddo," she would say. "And now I was saying goodbye to America."

They returned to Europe, only to find turmoil in the aftermath of World War I. Her mother decided to go back to America. And she couldn't afford to bring all four children. Anna would stay behind until they saved enough money.

So in one year, she would tell the girls, she lost her father, her mother and her country.

But, she also told them, hope and love and the human spirit can do amazing things. She spent five years with relatives in Czechoslovakia. Five hard years. But they led up to the place where her Thanksgiving story always ended.

Ellis Island.

With her dropping to her knees and kissing the ground.

Home again.

Malie, her daughter, lives in St. Augustine. Inspired not only by the annual tradition, but by a visit to her mother's birthplace in 2001, she turned the Thanksgiving story into a 73-page book, Goodbye America. It was published in April. And for that, the family has reason to be thankful this week.

Baba passed away in August. She was 92.

"She loved seeing her story in print," Malie said. "She wanted a copy of the book to be cremated with her. That's how much it meant to her."

This Thanksgiving will be different for her family. They will celebrate in St. Augustine. Malie recently sent out an e-mail informing everyone that she is starting a new tradition.

"In order to have dinner, each person has to talk about what they're thankful for," Malie said. "That was always important to my mother. She was always so grateful for what she had."

Her mother is gone, but the story lives on. In addition to being available at 21st century places like her Web site (ritamalie.com), Goodbye America is sold at the Ellis Island Immigration Museum.

As Malie, 67, talked about the importance of children knowing the hardships faced by their forebears, it hit me that we do sometimes interrupt the turkey and football to think about such things on Thanksgiving. But usually it's in the big, American-history sense. Not the small, personal one. And as her family tradition reminds us, that can be every bit as powerful.

Baba's saga spurs new tradition

By MARK WOODS, The Times-Union Originally created 11/18/2007

It was a Thanksgiving tradition for Rita Malie's family.

Malie, her two children and two granddaughters all would travel from Florida to Ohio to spend the holiday with her mother, Anna. Or, as the children call her, Baba.

Baba would greet Morgan and Madison, inevitably doing what every adult throughout history has done to every young child at a family reunion: comment on how much they have grown since last year.

"What's your mother feeding you these days, plant food?" she would say.

Then each year, while the turkey cooked, she would tell her great-granddaughters a story. Her story.

With four children to care for, her mother decided to move back to Europe. "So I said goodbye to Deddo," she would say. "And now I was saying goodbye to America."

They returned to Europe, only to find turmoil in the aftermath of World War I. Her mother decided to go back to America. And she couldn't afford to bring all four children. Anna would stay behind until they saved enough money.

So in one year, she would tell the girls, she lost her father, her mother and her country.

But, she also told them, hope and love and the human spirit can do amazing things. She spent five years with relatives in Czechoslovakia. Five hard years. But they led up to the place where her Thanksgiving story always ended.

Ellis Island.

With her dropping to her knees and kissing the ground.

Home again.

Malie, her daughter, lives in St. Augustine. Inspired not only by the annual tradition, but by a visit to her mother's birthplace in 2001, she turned the Thanksgiving story into a 73-page book, Goodbye America. It was published in April. And for that, the family has reason to be thankful this week.

Baba passed away in August. She was 92.

"She loved seeing her story in print," Malie said. "She wanted a copy of the book to be cremated with her. That's how much it meant to her."

This Thanksgiving will be different for her family. They will celebrate in St. Augustine. Malie recently sent out an e-mail informing everyone that she is starting a new tradition.

"In order to have dinner, each person has to talk about what they're thankful for," Malie said. "That was always important to my mother. She was always so grateful for what she had."

Her mother is gone, but the story lives on. In addition to being available at 21st century places like her Web site (ritamalie.com), Goodbye America is sold at the Ellis Island Immigration Museum.

mark.woods@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4212

By MARK WOODS, The Times-Union
Originally created 11/18/2007

With four children to care for, her mother decided to move back to Europe.
"So I said goodbye to Deddo," she would say. "And now I was saying goodbye to America."