Three Suitcases and a Three-Year-Old

Some wear and foxing.

Ann Mihkelson's parents fled their homeland of Estonia at the end of the Second World War, just days before the Soviets made any escape impossible. Ann, their only child, was born in Sweden shortly afterwards. When she was three, the family left for Australia and a life far from Estonia and the past.

An Australian childhood spent in tropical and outback Queensland in the 1950s and in Sydney in the late 1960s was set against her parents' tales of the country they left behind. Ann Mihkelson's heritage slipped into the background as she pursued a successful career in science and education until death took away her loved ones, including, unexpectedly, her husband.

Struck by grief, alone, and with the connections with the past slipping away, Ann searched for her roots. Seeking answers, she visited her parents' homeland and relatives for the first time. There she came to understand their story, and through it, her own.

This is an optimistic story of how, out of tragedy, identity can be reclaimed. It is one woman's story of emotion and love, a scientist's story of observation and analysis, and a story of how anyone can find their way home at the most unexpected times and to places that may only have existed in the imagination and the heart.