A Message from the Author
EEVA Dreams of Falling
During World War II, Finland was fighting Russia, which had announced its intention to annex the country and exterminate the Finns. In light of this threat, the Finnish government decided to evacuate the children of Finland, so that at least some vestige of Finland would remain even if the Russian threat materialized.
Finland wasn’t alone in sending its children away. This was a time when other small children in other countries were being sent away from their homes (remember the Kindertransport of Jewish children to England, English city children sent to the countryside, others sent to Canada.) The need to preserve their lives and keep them safe took precedence over thoughts of what the trauma of separation would subsequently cost those lives.
Anna Ruusuvuori, Sculptor
We know now how much psychic damage those separations caused, and yet the US government is now separating small children from their families as they arrive at the border seeking refuge. To see this damage being willfully repeated in spite of all the information we now have about the damage such separation does, is appalling. Because of that I am offering the entire text of my short story, EEVA DREAMS OF FALLING, which is the story of a woman returning to the site of her evacuation and trying to unlock its realities from the tortuous shame of her memory.
Eeva Dreams of Falling was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2009.