I wanted to add: These survivors I found to have lived very much in life-long emotional pain, and the amount of struggle and tragedy in their lives was unfathomable. Their pain was palpable, but I found along with their deep well of grief and sadness was a daily gratefulness for the blessings they saw before them each day. Their new lives and new families were their joy, inspiration, and motivation to continue to live. They had great wisdom and perspective about what was truly important. They had amazing personal resilience because they had survived the worst and knew it, and they had a deep-felt stubbornness to persevere.

I was very blessed to have grown up around those amazingly strong and inspirational people (all but one were women).