I was born in Bosnia and lived in Croatia since i was  a one year old. 
Being one of ten children in poverty life was hard, father died 
when i was eight years old, me and my nine brothers and sisters lived in the house with a straw 
roof and dirt floor. When we started going to school our schoolbags had 
to be made from cardboard boxes-  if it wereto rain on the way home our bags would be torn apart.
 We never carried lunch to school  and our hunger was unbearable. 
My eyes hid a tear as i watched children eating lovingly prepared ham
 sandwiches and  freshly squeezed juice. I often lived in a pretend world. 
I always hoped rich American  parents would have adopted me. I always used to pretend to
 have lunch by eating stale bread left overs.  Our specialty at home was watered down bread 
sprinkled with sugar ... Sometimes it was a luxury that we could not afford...
Which eventually led to us all  [my brothers and sisters] spreading like the wind.   
Every time i visited mothers home there would be less of us children left.
 As i grew i realized my hopes  were squashed when looking in the mirror i noticed i grew tall and clumsy
 with huge arms and haunting eyes... I wasn’t a pretty child after all. Daily abuse was a common practice 
that I accepted considering who i was -  i could not blame those who gave me life but i'd have 
doubts after looking at  the pale faces of my brothers and sisters... 
God knows how much they suffered in silence.  

Suddenly a telephone ring breaks the silence....My sister calling from Croatia telling me that 
my Mother is dead. For a moment i didn’t feel anything just the numbness of my body and frozen emotions.
 Like a zombie i walked into the bathroom staring into the mirror until  my pupils became rounded with no blinking...
I kept looking through realizing that my soul had unveiled itself. Memories kept flooding back to the days when i 
left my home and family at the age of 17 .For the first time when i arrived in Sydney, Australia i traveled down 
a escalator...so frightened that it would cut my legs off if i stepped onto it. Nowadays i have to say that the 
coin has flipped. I am still a dreamer with an abundance of Optimism.
 I have been through so much and i was able to prove my strengths to myself. 

I learned all my weaknesses as a young girl but never realized  my strengths until i became a woman.
 I never accept pity...I don’t want pity. The greater spirit than myself has always watched over me and still does.
 My highest school education was year 5.  When i came to Australia i knew not  a word of English - i couldn't read or write.
 Heck you could even label me as "uneducated"....Yet now im a poet with  two published books released...Ironic isn’t it? 

My last book titled “Shadow Of A Woman” was published  by Minerva Press in 1997 and got
 positive reviews… Yet “Beneath My Skin” takes a different  direction from my previous works.