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Jacqueline Widmar Stewart’s immigrant story repeats itself in most American families. Her forebears fled their homeland for safety.  When she and her parents returned two generations later, they found that their family there bore the scars of two world wars. Torn into two different countries, nationalities, speaking two different languages and turned into enemies by their newly formed nations, her European relatives had been cleaved in two by the political border drawn between them.

Those who left reunited with those who stayed. At the time Jacqui’s grandmother Antonia had escaped Europe, she had been pregnant and with three small children in tow, only later to be accompanied by her husband. Her path led out via Germany, over the ocean and across Canada. In Oklahoma her husband Alois rejoined her and Jacqui’s mother Jewel was born. Then back on the road, the expanded Knez family travelled down to the coal mines of southern Illinois.  After Alois died of black lung, Antonia cooked for surviving miners.

Small wonder, then, that human rights are important to this American family. Jacqui began her legal career representing women in a gender discrimination case for the private San Jose firm Wylie Leahy Blunt & McBride. While pregnant with her second child, she joined the public sector as Assistant City Attorney for San Jose and taught classes in law at night. For 10-years she served as co-founder and president of the East Palo Alto Kids Foundation, a nonprofit organization that funds teachers of underserved children. After that, she served as pro bono assistant counsel for the Mid-Peninsula Regional Open Space District and acted as judge pro tempore and arbitrator for the California courts. A stint at Sunset Magazine opened the window on garden imagery.

Jacqui’s parents Jewel and John Widmar themselves only completed elementary school before being sent to safer places. Nonetheless, their girls’ education remained a priority for the Widmars. From Chicago, Jewel and John had moved to the picturesque shores of Lake Michigan, to a little town of Beverly Shores that now belongs to the Indiana Dunes National Park. Even now her first-grade teacher is Jacqui’s chief mentor. At the Universities of Colorado and Michigan, Jacqui studied French and German language for undergraduate and master’s degrees respectively, and later earned a doctorate in Jurisprudence from Stanford Law School. Abroad she studied for a year each at the Universities in Germany and Slovenia, and a summer of classical studies in Greece.

Jacqui’s husband Blair Walker Stewart also earned a J.D. from Stanford after his service in the United States Navy as Lieutenant on a nuclear submarine.  Jacqui and Blair have two children, both with doctoral degrees from Stanford UniversitySince the beginning of the millennium, Jacqui has conducted independent research.  In her first book she explored the geologic and philanthropic history of the five parks at the southern tip of Lake Michigan, The Glaciers’ Treasure Trove: A Field Guide to the Lake Michigan Riviera.  

Three books on Europe published by European publishers followed.  Working with Slovenia’s leading publishing house Mladinska knjiga, she explored her grandparents’ homeland with Finding Slovenia: A Guide to Old Europe’s New Country.  Two books on France - Parks and Gardens in Greater Paris (also published in French) and Champagne Regained - were published by German architect/publisher Axel Menges.  Her four books on the history of women in Europe currently comprise the Hidden Women series:  A History of Europe, Celts and Freedom; Celtic Burgundy in Europe; Frankish Splendor and Valor in Celtic Europe; and Charlemagne’s Celtic Domain.  

In addition to being the ground crew for their research trips, Blair serves as scientist, technician and editor. Together, the Stewarts seek verifiable information to build a more accurate account of the European past. Using archeological findings as their framework, they follow threads of the Iron Age up to present day.  

They are discovering that the story of Jacqui’s family is shared by others who have come to the US, regardless of when that happened.  Unprovoked attacks by conquerors routinely displace residents, of Europe and from other continents as well.  The bright side of their research reveals a global family web that remains intact, despite continual attacks by conquerors and empires.  www.hiddenwomenbooks.com    

Ukraine’s story illustrates this story vividly in real time. Men and women residents defend their homeland against vicious, inhuman attacks by conquerors.  Families are torn apart, forced to flee and seek refuge. Memorials honor the homeland’s heroic freedom fighters in verse, statuary, painting, names, food, drink.  

May homeland heroes prevail.