A true-life story that may sound a bit familiar to the baby boomer generation. Spanning the years from the '50s to the modern times of today, from childhood antics to the angst and perils of teenage-hood, and then the highs and lows of marriage, giving birth, divorce.

Beyond those years, follow an assortment of the amusing and amazing, the joyful and the miraculous, and the disappointment and sorrow of a not too normal life.

It all began in a tiny northern town in America, transcending six decades and several foreign countries. A chance to start over, a second marriage (one worth waiting for)-new man, new country, new customs-amongst castles and moors and mysticism, along with quirkiness, oddities, and whimsy.

A lifelong search for identity and answers, needle-in-a-haystack style. A quest to find a recognizable face, a name, a place, feeling nonexistent at times, like a ghost. "I'm here, but I'm not really here."

A discovery of human nature, to belong to someone, days and moments that will never be forgotten, and the chance to live another day as a result of finding the truth. Another whole family, like figures in a wax museum suddenly and finally come to life.

A song with a beautiful melody and words beckoning from far across the ocean, simultaneously haunting and pleasing, the personal anthem that sometimes shadowed and other times led to the final destination of knowing.

I shouldn't have even made it. Everyone else is dead. Not me. I was meant to live.

And this is my story.