A story of exceptional value told in Mother Maria both because of the subject matter of the book and the author. This is the first book of a trilogy God’s Miracles in Lives of Regular People that describes important historical events through the life of the main character Maria.

Ukraine, World War II: a well-settled family shares the destinies with the countless number of people who are living in the same country at the same horrible time. The war affects everything in regular life and definitely changes people. Maria - a girl who hadn’t figured out yet how deep her inner strength and faith are - is put to the test of surviving.

Angelic Tarasio is the author of this book. She is a daughter-in-law of the main character Maria, a person who was deeply inspired by Maria’s life. Maria opened for Angelic the full spectrum of life beauty with inspirational understanding of strenuous life situations.

The author shares with us how surviving was possible through the hardships of war and shows realistically how a weak and scared Maria turns into a strong personality under the influence of merciless events. Basing the plot on real historical data, described in Maria’s journals, Angelic completed it mildly with her knowledge, accumulated from the personal contacts and long interesting conversations with her mother-in-law, using her colourful imagination.

"Mother Maria was a clever human being - says the author - and she knew well her strong and weak sides. The hardships of life afflicted a romantic and gentle Miss Maria. With God’s protection Maria avoided the physical or psycho-emotional destruction. The adversity made her strong and sometimes she declared that it made her too strong."

The author describes in details how Maria, keeping a strong connection with the Divinity, overcomes all the life threatening events and preserves hope and love. Maria is never alone or lost in the fire of war; she has her guiding faith. And her spiritual guidance allows her not to give up all through her thorny journey. This story illustrates the intangible and purest part of humanity: faith.

How a professional woman from American business world can write a book that inspires to survive in difficulties of the present days? She is guided, as her mother-in-law used to be. Angelic Tarasio is the result of her and her family’s challenging past experiences. Her own life has not been floating without its own turmoil; her husband had a nearly fatal car accident which paralysed him; her daughter is a victim of polio, and herself is a survivor of cancer.

The fact that all three triumphed over their circumstances, is a testimony to Angelic’s faith, as a parallel to the story of Maria. Probably this is also one of the reasons why Angelic has decided to share with the world her family saga: it is the paradigm of how to overcome hardships, how to let our personal strength and faith grow and support us and others when needed.