Heartbeat of a Survivor

I glanced behind me and saw my husband being detained. The guards interrogated him and took his photo as the flashbulbs illuminated his face. The moment felt like an eternity as they searched Pe's body from head to toe. And then, he was forced to sign yet another confession. Looking on, I held my breath in anticipation as my 5-year-old son asked, "Are they going to let us go?"

Nita Tin, born a Buddhist in Rangoon, Burma, was raised in an opulent lifestyle. But as her country came under the control of a ruthless military dictator, her whole life changed. She lived through a brutal massacre, the imprisonment of family members, struggle, oppression, and poverty. As newlyweds, she and her husband survived life in an impoverished village riddled with life-threatening illnesses as he cared for 100,000 patients as a solo physician in cramped and unhygienic quarters. Then, in 1973, she fled her home of Golden Pagodas with her husband and two children to enter the Land of Liberty, where her soul was set free in a greater way than she could have ever dreamed possible.