Immigrant Grandma power abounds in our new book, Bash and Lucy Fetch Team Vera and the Dream Beasts.

In the book, Vera, an immigrant grandma from Ukraine, is a successful girls’ soccer coach and assistant town mayor. Here’s how we describe her in the book:

“Her uniform was stitched in blue and gold Ukrainian colors, and she and her players wore Ukrainian-style flower arrangements in their hair. Vera’s team outsmarted, outran, outshouted, and overpowered every girls’ team in the town, the country, and the state.”

Vera is based on the real Vera Moroz, who grew up in Soviet-occupied Ukraine. During World War II, the Soviets occupied her part of Ukraine, took over her family’s house, and made her family move to the basement. They also took away the family’s land.

“We had a lot of land, but the Soviet Union took it away,” she said in an interview.

When she was 6, her mother worked in a hospital at night, keeping a wood-fired boiler going. Before she left for work, Vera’s mom would braid Vera’s hair while she was asleep and prepare her food for the morning.

“They would give us a ticket for one loaf of bread for one week. When I was very young, I went at night and stayed in the long line to get bread. We were always very hungry. We ate special grass that my mother planted,” she said.

A neighbor once stole her family’s goat and asked her mom to tell the police. She wanted the government to take her children away, to a school for orphans, so the kids would get food. The neighbor went to jail, and her children went to the government school.

In Ukraine, Vera experienced many hardships, including losing $10,000 –all her savings–after the Soviet Union dissolved. She explained, “Most Ukrainians lost all their money. After the separation (dissolution of the Soviet Union), Russian bank did not give Ukrainians their money.”

A single working mother,  she often knitted and sewed clothing in the bathroom at night so she wouldn’t wake her two children while they were sleeping. She sold the clothing to make extra money. She also worked an 8-hour job, getting up early to make food for her children.

Vera immigrated to the US in 2006 and became a US citizen in 2011.

Vera took a shine to Michael when he was a toddler and “adopted” him as her grandson. She treats him as one of her own and likes to call him “the professor.” Her grandma  power inspires us every day.

In the book, Vera reminds her team members about how easy their lives are, compared to her life growing up, and encourages them to work hard and appreciate all they have.

“In my country, not enough money to buy pets fancy foods and get their hairs fixed in beauty salons,” she says in Bash and Lucy Fetch Team Vera and the Dream Beasts.  “Your pets very lucky. And you lucky to have them. You must love them.”

We dedicate our book to Vera: “For Vera Moroz, You inspire us every day with your strength, goodness, smarts and spirit. We love you!”

For us, Vera is the epitome of Mother Power, Grandma Power and Girl-Power!