Anna's Story — Elizabeth Carlson

Anna turned 21 years old on the day that she arrived in Vancouver, British Columbia. She felt twice that age. The mirror on the train reflected dark circles beneath her brown eyes and a thin face. Her overall appearance was only saved by her glowing, abundant hair.

A Jewish girl, she was emigrating from Glasgow, Scotland, with her husband and baby daughter. Her father, on her departure, had said: “You'll live to regret this decision. You were always the one to chase wild dreams, wanting more than you had.”

“Isn't a dream better than this?” she had asked, sweeping her arms to take in their surroundings.

It was 1922 and Canada was in the midst of Great Depression. When Anna was called upon to honor a commitment to a Jewish friend caught in pre-war Europe, she needed to balance a career that she had worked hard to establish so she could foster a nine-year-old child. Her dreams took a direction that she had never expected.