We love you and miss you very very much!
We wish we could see you!
We wish we could talk to you!

Please know you are in our thoughts, our dreams and our hearts each and every day, even if you can not see us!

Love,
Papa, Maggi, Aunt Molly, Uncle Kevin, Zio Lorenzo, Grandma Roro, Grandpa Jim, Grandma Ina and little cousin Zoe!! Oh, and Hobbes the cat too!

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/why-a-girl-tore-her-us-passport/475927.html

Politics Seen in International Custody Disputes

Why a Girl Tore Her U.S. Passport

21 February 2013

By Alexander Winning

With photo cameras snapping and television cameras rolling, Sara defiantly said she had no intention of living in the U.S.Muffled in a light-blue coat and with downcast eyes, 10-year-old Sara ripped apart her American passport outside the U.S. Consulate in St. Petersburg.

Standing nearby, her mother, Russian emigre and Harvard graduate Marianne Grin, voiced support for legislation banning Americans from adopting Russian children — the reason for the rally in late December.

“The way that America betrayed us has led us to despair,” Grin said by phone Thursday, explaining her daughter’s actions.

State media lapped up the scene of a child rejecting her father’s U.S. heritage in favor of her mother’s Russian roots. The image of Sara tearing up her passport — albeit it was expired — appeared on television and in newspapers and blogs as the country debated the Jan. 1 ban on U.S. child adoptions.

Sara’s theatrical gesture, however, casts the spotlight on a less visible sore point in U.S.-Russian relations where children are also suffering: child custody disputes.

Continue reading at

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/why-a-girl-tore-her-us-passport/475927.html

A previous post discussed the content of the video, which contains interviews with Grin followed by the journalist’s efforts to verify what she says, noting frequent inconsistencies in her story.  When the journalist attempts to ask her about evidence that shows she is lying, Grin first refuses to answer. When the journalist asks again, she becomes aggressive and abruptly ends the interview after accusing him of “being paid by an American citizen”.  (NB: Grin is also a US citizen.)

The original, without subtitles, is available here:

The invitation to “Extreme Eli,” his 2010 birthday party in Florence

Today, February 7, Elliot turned 13.

The family will try, again, to deliver presents to Eli on this February 7, hoping the the mother will not, once again, prevent this from occurring.

None of the family of the children has been able to tell them Happy Birthday or give them birthday presents since September 2011.  The mother has refused the family any contact with them.

Birthday parties for the kids in Florence were often held in pizzerias with dozens of classmates and friends from the children’s sports, music, and Hebrew lessons.

Beginning with Sam’s birthdays when he was just three, the children’s birthdays became known among their friends for their quirky and funny party invitations.  Above is the invitation to “Exreme Eli,” when he turned 10.  (And yes, that is a picture of Eli scuba diving, during his summer vacation.)  The parties were always  raucous, noisy affairs were everyone had a great time.

Russian court decision refusing to recognize the Italian judgment, awarding domicile of the children to the father, under an international treaty between Russia and Italy.

Unlike previous Russian videos, the reporter attempted to verify Grin’s various claims of violence in Italy and even Russia, and found them to lack any basis. After the paper’s investigation, it also deleted or modified previous articles about the case.

The video is available at:  http://www.kp.ru/video/486574/

A transcript of the video, in English, was kindly provided by a friend of the site set up by the family on Facebook, for which we are grateful.

English transcript to video

US citizen Marianne Grin ran away from her American husband to Russia, bringing the couple’s four children, later demonstrating by tearing up her and the children’s American passports in front of the US consulate.

Family conflicts are difficult to figure out, each side considering itself on the right side, and the other side in the wrong. We are going to attempt to sort things out. Marianne, a native of Moscow was taken to the United States in the early 90s, when she was 15 years old. [Correction: she left Russia in 1980.]

The young woman graduated from Harvard, became a lawyer, found a good job and fell in love. Michael was tall, handsome. They got married and started working together in the law division of the largest energy company in the US. Marianna gave birth to the first child when her husband was offered to work in the company’s legal department in Italy.

The family moves to Florence. There Marianne gives birth to three more children. Then a family conflict flares up. Both sides describe it differently. Michael refuses to comment on it publicly (to journalists), explaining his unwillingness to discuss the mother in front of the children.

Marianne, on the other hand, is eager to speak to the press, peppering her husband with insults.

“We were not poor, my husband had, and continues to have, a very well paying job, which forces him to travel around the world because he is responsible for international legal affairs of a huge American corporation. He lives in airplanes. He would leave home for a week to two weeks and what he did on those business trips, only he knows. At some point he started to live a separate life in the open, and that is how we lived.”

Divorce in Italy can be a terrible ordeal. Whoever gains custody of the children has the claim to a large portion of the family assets plus child support payments. [Note: this appears to be Grin's spin on Italian law to the journalist.]

“He understood what that would mean for him and he sued me for the sole custody of all four children, purely for economic reasons. The story took a different turn when he forced the kids to live with him. And the beatings began.”

Violence towards the children is Marianne’s main accusation against her former husband. And she accused him of that frequently. On one occasion, Michael supposedly hit the kids’ heads against the wall, on another she alleges he broke the eldest son’s arm.

But the doctors, after thorough examinations, found no health problems with the children. No criminal cases were ever initiated. After a lengthy process, the court decided that the children should live with their father, but both parents would retain custody. It was a victory for Michael. But this, as it turned out, was not the end of this story.

Marianna: “The father stole the children’s American passports and banned the consular officer from issuing them new passports, and we ended up in Italy as Russian citizens. To this day there are no other documents for the children.”

Having lost the case in Italy, Marianne decided to take a desperate step: together with the children she took a boat to Croatia and from there she took a plane to St. Petersburg.

“We escaped to Russia, when the situation became absolutely desperate. He sued for custody through the courts and did not want to divide the family assets, and that he got. He had me listed in Interpol, now I am an international criminal, as I ‘kidnapped’ the kids. I cannot leave this country, I would be immediately arrested on the border…”

But Marianna’s statements have no basis in fact. Here is the official Interpol website:

As can be seen, Mrs. Grin is not listed among the Russian women of comparable age. Nor is she listed among American women.

By the way, what were the documents that Marianne Grin was tearing up in front of the US consulate? If her husband stole the documents, how could she tearing them up in Russia?

There are many such questions about Marianne’s story.

Marianna: “For the last 1.5 years he is bombarding me with suits here, in St. Petersburg, to forcefully impose the Italian court decision regarding the custody of the kids. One and a half months ago he showed up in a state school here, across the park, insisting on ‘contact’, he is legally their father, and attacked the kids. He came and said that he wants to communicate with the kids, but this American father has no control.  He physically attacked his 6 year old son, grabbed him by the legs, hit his head against the wall, against the floor, dragged him upside down to the third floor of the school, where he was planning to ‘communicate’ with the kids. He says he has the ‘right’, that he is the ‘owner’, ‘MINE!’..

The school principal describes these events differently. In her letter to the court, she states that the father attempted to take the child to the classroom, however, the boy started to resist, so the father put the child on his shoulder and carried him. There is no mention of beating, or hitting the child’s head against the wall.

And then there is this video made by Michael himself. The teachers, his son and his daughter are all in the classroom. There is his daughter, calmly next to the wall. No one is crying, grimacing in pain, or holding their head. However he is unable to communicate with his son. In order to attract his attention, the father is hiding behind the desks.

Everything is calm until the mother forces herself into the classroom. Only now her son starts to cry.

[Voice of Marianne shouting on video from school]: “Come here now! Turn around! This is called violence against children!” 

Marianne takes away the children, how they later have concussions is a mystery. But the mother goes to the police and attempts to press criminal charges against her husband.

Interviewer to Marianne: “Will you be trying to prevent meetings between the kids and their father?”

Marianne: “No, of course not, I have to, my kids are not two years old, I again repeat that my two older kids are taller than me, speak in low voices, so I do not plan to try to prevent anything, it would be impossible.”

We ask Marianne to comment on the video shot at school. Her facial expression immediately changes.

[Marianne to reporter] “You were paid to represent the interests of an American citizen. Your questions are provocative and false.  There is no sense in answering a false question. Thank you. Now goodbye. [shoving the reporter's microphone and walking away] Goodbye!”

Now Marianne’s case about the four children is being tried in St. Petersburg. The lower court (first instance) refused to enforce the Italian’s court’s ruling. The children will stay with their mother for now.

Michael: “I am disappointed, obviously. We will continued to try this case in Russia. It was already tried once, and decided in Italy. Now we are going to have to repeat this whole process in Russia. I am ready for anything to meet with my kids in Russia. When it is impossible to meet with the kids, impossible to speak with them, it is very difficult to convince them that the information they were given about me is false, to tell them their father loves them as much as before. And everything they were told about their father is not true.

And there has been zero communication with the children since September of 2011. Everybody was blocked from communicating, the entire family, including the three-year old little girl who is their cousin. It was really hard for her to lose contact. It is a very dramatic situation.

One of my children will soon have a birthday. I will try to get him a birthday present and find someone to help deliver it.

We offered Michael to use our channel and address the children directly.

Michael: “I miss you guys, I love you very much.”

“В редакцию поступило обращение адвоката отца ребенка с просьбой опровергнуть распространенные сведения, так как они не соответствуют действительности. В соответствии со статьей 43 закона «О средствах массовой информации» редакция отмечает, что не располагает доказательствами того, что распространенные ранее сведения соответствуют действительности.”

Six year old son at picket

Published retraction of Russian TV

“Our editor received a complaint from a lawyer representing the father of the children, who requested our correction to the reported information, as it is not true.  In accordance with Article 43 of the law on Mass Media, we note that there is no evidence that the previously transmitted information is true.”

We will always be here for you. We are your family and no judicial decision can change that. Stay strong together and know that you are loved and thought of each day even though we are not being allowed to be in touch with you for over a year now.

Roro and Grandpa are extremely sad not to be able to even wish you happy birthdays, or Chanuka or send you gifts or letters or emails and skype like the past.

It would mean so much to at least be able to have some kind of communication with you. It’s not fair to you and it’s not fair to all of us that you are being forced to live cut off from family and all your friends in Florence.

We will not give up on you!

With love and hope that somehow this message gets through to you,

Aunt Molly

Neither of these impediments were present in the previous rulings of the same judge, when he issued a decision in January 2012 stating that interim Italian decrees could not be recognized in Russia, only the court’s final decision, and that the award of “sole custody” to the father is not legally recognizable. Both of these issues were addressed with the final judgment of the Italian court, rendered in September 2012, but the judge does not appear to follow his own, earlier decision of January 2012.

The essence of this ruling is essentially that foreign decisions cannot be enforced in Russia even when the Russian party voluntarily submits to the jurisdiction of the foreign court and continues to participate in the foreign proceedings even after initiating identical claims against the same party in Russia. 

The Russian court today in St. Petersburg denied the request for recognition of the final Italian judgment, refusing to apply the international convention the country signed with Italy for the enforcement of civil judgments. No reasons were given yet.

Previously, an interim Italian decree awarding custody of the children to the father was issued prior to the abduction of the children by Marianne Grin. Grin illegally abducted the children to Russia, as well as violating an Italian court order prohibiting the children from leaving the country without the consent of both parents.

After abducting the children to Russia, Grin continued to press her case for custody in the Italian courts, which makes today’s decision even more difficult to understand.  In violating basic notions of due process, the decision essentially gives Grin the right to choose which court decision she prefers.

We are waiting for more information about the judge’s decision.

In a separate case before a different judge that Grin has filed in St. Petersburg against her ex-husband, with the same requests she made in Italy, the court has now ordered a psychological and psychiatric examination of the entire family.  Grin has opposed any such examination in Russia of her or the children.

The apartment she occupied in the center of Florence, Italy, belonged to the children’s father. While he was on vacation with the children, Grin sold her apartment on August 13, 2009.  On August 14, she forcefully broke into the her ex-husband’s apartment, declared herself homeless, and threw out all his belongings. But the children’s father, concerned about where his children would sleep when they visited their mother then consented in court that Grin could use his apartment.  The court assigned it to her for her use indefinitely. This became her legal residence in Florence.

Immediately after the abduction, however, the court reassigned it back to her ex-husband. (A story for another day is how just before abducting the children, Grin attempted to continue to control the apartment from Russia by creating a fraudulent “rental agreement” with a friend.)  What the husband discovered in the apartment could only be called a “document falsification workstation.”  Grin had stamps for creating official-looking documents and invoices in Italian and Russian, doctors’ stationary, and piles of examples in her handwriting.

Scams by Using the Children’s Names

As just one example of the activities discovered, the apartment’s internet service was not in the name of Marianne Grin, but the children’s, using fake social security numbers (Codice Fiscale) that she created to make them appear older!

First, she ordered internet in her 13-year old son’s name, using a falsified social security card that made him appear to be 26 years old.  The service was provided for several months, and was finally cut off for failure to make payments.

This letter, dated August 18, 2011  is from a collection agency informing the eldest child that because he did not pay his internet bill the account would be closed and the debt sent to a collection agency.

It says that as of August 4, 2011 the child had not paid 437.80 Euros for the internet service that Grin had ordered.

So what did Grin do when the internet was cut-off for non/payment of bills in her son’s name?  She falsified another social security number in the name of her 9-year old daughter to make her appear over 15 years older than she is!

In this document, you can see the fake social security number, with a birth date of 1987 instead of 2002. Again the address given for the internet connection was Grin’s legal residence in Florence.

Falsification of social security numbers is a crime in Italy.

Without her children knowing it, is she doing the same to them in Russia? Potentially ruining their credit worthiness for many years to come?

There seems to be no limits to the criminal behavior of Marianne Grin as well as the lack of caring for her own children.

Grin told the judge that Michael “lives in an airplane”.  She also claimed that he had come to the children’s Russian school in November, where she said he beat them in front of the school director, psychologists and teachers. Michael’s lawyers responded that this is nonsense. As the newspaper Fontanka reported yesterday, school representatives were disturbed by Grin’s imaginary claims that they had permitted any violence to take place at the school, calling her assertions “lies”.

Michael’s lawyer explained in court that, following Grin’s bizarre claims, the other Russian court hearing her case against Michael ordered a psychological evaluation (expertise) of the entire family.  This would be the second psychological evaluation in this divorce. The Italian psychological expert, Dr. A. Ceccarelli, issued over 180 pages of findings, reporting that Grin suffers from “a severely disturbed personality,” and transfers paranoid delusions to the children. In his court report to Judge Papait in June 2011, Dr. Ceccarelli says “The mother’s behavior and her relationship with the children … As we have already observed in the occasion of the previous monitoring, Ms. Grin […] appears a person suffering psychologically. Her behaviors are unpredictable and bizarre, guided by paranoid fantasy, of being a subject of a ‘plot’ and of ‘persecution’ in part by the Tribunal and by the ‘institutions’ in general (she manifests a strong distrust even of Social Services and Pediatric Neuropsychiatry). Considering the behavioral picture that emerges from all people that have had contact with the mother, we believe that there should be a new deep psychiatric evaluation of Ms. Grin, there being strong suspicions of a very gravely disturbed personality. In a similar context of mental illness, the relationship of the mother with the children is of strong psycho-pathological risk.”

As was also explained in court today, the children have now given testimony that their mother deceived them when she brought them to Russia, telling them that it was only temporary because, she said, their father wanted to put them or their older brother into a mental institution.  Grin has prevented any contact with the father that would allow him to explain or show the children that this is false, for example by showing up at the children’s school on the day scheduled for visitation by the court, screaming “violence” and accusing the school director and teachers of being “scum” and “swine”.

The case involves the recognition of an Italian civil judgment under a 1978 agreement between Russia and Italy for the recognition of each country’s civil judgments. The treaty expressly includes judgments in family law matters. At today’s hearing, representatives of the Italian consulate to St. Petersburg were also present.

Grin did not deny in court that she participated fully in the case in Italy, demanding the same things that three years later she began to request by filing a new court case in Russia. She claimed the two cases were “different” but she did not explain how.

The hearing lasted a few hours and the decision is scheduled for Friday, January 25th.

The father was questioned by a Russian journalist after the hearing but said that he did not wish to comment on the case. He said only that he looks forward to the day when he can hug his children and tell them he loves them. When asked if he had any words for his children, he said with wet eyes, “I miss you all very much.”

Sara and her papa

Городсуду Санкт-Петербурга во вторник, 22 января, предстоит окончательно решить конфликт между американцем Майклом Макилротом и бывшей гражданкой СССР Марианной Гринь. Больше трёх лет,как уже писала «Фонтанка», эти супруги делят детей. В Италии, где семья жила в последние годы, решение вынесено в пользу отца, и наша страна, согласно международной конвенции, должна его исполнить. Именно это и предстоит решить Горсуду: будет Россия соблюдать договорённости или нет.

Американских детей поделят суды – Court to decide on American children

City Court, St. Petersburg:  on Tuesday, 22 January, there will finally be a decision in the conflict between the American Michael Mcilwrath and the former citizen of the USSR Marianne Grin. For more than three years, as already reported in “Fontanka”, their children have been the subject of legal action. In Italy, where the family lived in recent years, the court decision was made in favor of the father, and our country, according to an international convention, must recognize that decision. That is what the City Court must decide: whether Russia will comply or not.

Американских детей поделят суды – Court to decide on American children

Corte d’Appello, San Pietroburgo:  Martedì, il 22 gennaio, potrà finalmente essere risolto il conflitto tra l’americano Michael Mcilwrath e la cittadina dell’ex Unione Sovietica Marianne Grin. Per oltre tre anni, come già riportato in “Fontanka”, questi bambini sono i soggetti di due azioni. In Italia, dove la famiglia ha vissuto negli ultimi anni, la decisione è stata presa a favore del padre, e il nostro paese, in base ad una convenzione internazionale, deve riconoscerla. Questo è ciò che la Corte di Appello deve decidere: se la Russia aderisce o meno.

The decisions are available in their original Russian text:

Grin defamation judgment (OCR version in Russian – shorter download)

Grin defamation judgment (original in Russian)

Baltinfo appeal decision (original in Russian)

The decisions, both of which were confirmed on appeal, describe how Grin fabricated a false story of “escaping” violence in Italy. Both Grin and Baltinfo have been ordered to pay the father compensation for moral damages, and to issue public retractions of the false statements.

Grin’s  accusations were as elaborate as they were false, the courts found. For example, in the decision against Grin by the Dzerzhinsky court of St. Petersburg, the judge noted how she had claimed in the tabloid “Pravda.ru” of being beaten and that this led to the loss of partial eyesight in one eye.  Not only was the accusation of violence false (and unconfirmed by evidence), so was Grin’s alleged loss of eyesight. As the judge noted, Grin’s own medical records showed she had been diagnosed 20 years earlier of “a heriditary condition of strabism” in one eye. When her ex-husband filed for divorce, she attempted to attribute this condition to a non-existent violence.

(As noted elsewhere, after 12 years of marriage and four children, Grin began to assert accusations of violence only when her ex-husband filed for divorce.)

The judge also noted how Grin attempted to fabricate evidence in Russia, repeatedly taken the children as her “witnesses” to the Russian police during the many months she denied them any contact with family and relatives, coaching them on what to say.  Yet, the judge observed, the Russian police were unpersuaded by Grin’s obvious attempts to influence the children.

The decision against Baltinfo by a different St. Petersburg court was based on the publication of Grin’s false accusations without attempting to substantiate them.

This is an important win for the family, who have been battling Grin’s false accusation for years. As described elsewhere on this blog, Grin made false accusations of abuse against her own mother following a disagreement between the two. (Also in Russian.) In doing so, Grin invoked her qualification as a lawyer with a Harvard Law degree to have her mother’s parental rights over her step brother revoked, and to have her mother branded as mentally ill in the eyes of immigration authorities at the US Justice Department.

Years later, after her former husband filed for divorce and sought custody of the children in Italy, Grin attempted the same ruse. As Grin’s medical records proved, she made visits to the hospital with a reddened face after adult acne treatments, claiming that she had been beaten.  She also falsified documents in these efforts. The Italian courts dismissed all of her claims of violence. Grin not only made false accusations of abuse against her ex-husband but also against his girl-friend, the nanny that helped raise the children and other women around him. Again, all these charges were dismissed as false.

фото Марианны Гринь

The recent decisions by the Russian courts follow similar decisions in Italy and the USA about Grin’s fabrications of abuse.

Grin abducted her four children after losing custody in Italy after being found by a court-appointed psychologist to be psychologically disturbed. But the problem remains that the children are still in her precarious care.

The Italian press continues to lament that lack of any action being taken to return the children to their family. In an article that appeared this month in the newspaper La Nazione, the paper noted that it was clear in the psych evaluation of June 20, 2011, that “the mother has a gravely disturbed personality” and that “the relationship of the mother with the children is of a strong psychopathic risk” because of behaviors ” that dangerously impact the psychological equilibrium of the children”.

“She was dangerous, and that was known,” writes La Nazione, yet the expert did not recommend restrictions on her visitation with the children, “because actions of  limitation could be read as confirmation of the paranoiac fantasies of the mother.”  As the article concludes, “the mother was paranoid and dangerous to the children, but lets not limit her too much or she will discover that she is paranoid and it is better not to let her find out.”

As one documented example of how Grin has severely abused the children in Russia, earlier this year she Grin placed them into Russian orphanages run by the Chabad-Lubavitch organization.

Members of the staff (also interviewed by Italian journalists) confirmed that Grin had told the children that their father no longer wanted them and would put them into orphanages in Italy if he found them. The children have now confirmed in Russian court that they were told by their mother that they had to come to Russia because their father intended to put their older brother into a mental institution in Italy.

Marianne Grin (photo from La Repubblica newspaper)
Марианны Гринь – фото

Grin’s lies were not believed in the USA, in Italy, or by the Russian courts.  Unfortunately, the children continue to suffer by continuously being brought, by Grin, to police stations and to hospitals to report on alleged abuse. The children are the true victims of their mother’s delusions. The family is also concerned that perhaps she is harming them herself.

США паспорте – Марианна Гринь
US passport – Marianne Grin

On December 26, 2012, (Марианны Гринь) participated in a protest at the US Consulate in St Petersburg, Russia, in support of a proposed law that will prohibit Americans from adopting orphans in Russia. News reports showed Grin standing over her 10-year old daughter, tearing up her expired US passport.

It is hardly the first time Grin has dragged her children into her conflicts, and inciting a 10-year old girl to destroy an expired passport for the cameras is just another chapter.

By using a small child as a front, Grin is hiding her own US citizenship and her wealth in the USA.  It is documented beyond doubt that Grin is as rich in dollars, as she is careful to appear poor in rubles when she goes seeking help from various Russian officials and organizations.

Wealthy American Lawyer

Grin is a wealthy US citizen and a US-trained lawyer with multiple bank accounts and property holdings in the USA.  She has often commented in articles in Russian tabloid media about her efforts to return to the children to the USA, and her unsuccessful visits to the US Consulate to obtain new US passports without her husband’s consent.

Until now, she has not hidden her desire to leave Russia, including in her interview on the Iene television news program.

Raised as an American

When she was a child, Grin’s mother took her and her brother to the USA, where her family continues to live.  Her mother, who previously had worked as journalist in Moscow, arrived in the USA with nothing in 1980.  Fortunately for Grin, private and public welfare institutions gave her access to some of the USA’s best universities.

Professionally, Grin received huge salaries in New York, Paris, and then Italy, working as a lawyer in international banking and contracts for US corporations.

What did she do with all of her wealth?

Keeping the Money Out of Russia

In 1999, Grin and her former husband moved from the USA to Italy, where three of their four children were born (the oldest was born in New York).

Grin continued to earn good money in Italy, as her monthly pay slip and Italian and US tax returns showed.  Grin, the new anti-American, paid her taxes in Italy and the US.

Her income just from her one employer in Italy was close to $170,000 per year.

She declared this in her Italian tax statement.

With her wealth growing, Grin carefully avoided  ever letting her money touch Russian soil.  She did this by keeping multiple US bank accounts for this purpose, as in these examples, where she transferred over $8,000 in one month and then another $16,000 the next month from banks in Italy and Germany:

While she avoided paying any taxes in Russia, Grin treated the USA (home to her money and properties) better. She was so loyal in paying taxes that the American government even

refunded what she had overpaid, as shown in the US Treasury check to Grin in 2010.

Grin’s Foreign Assets

In her divorce proceedings, Grin declared to be the owner of three houses in California and an apartment in Italy. She did not deny taking all of her and her husband’s years of savings (this was documented by banking documents) but she did deny owning the apartment she currently occupies in St. Petersburg. (Apparently, what she owns in Russia is denied in other places: what she owns in other places is denied in Russia.)

Grin’s multiple bank accounts in the USA keep her dollars out of site of Russian authorities. Although she is a rich corporate lawyer, a graduate of Harvard Law School, she is just a poor Russian mother to anyone naive enough not to inquire.

Apparently, Grin assumes Russians will only look at her young daughter destroying an expired passport, and not notice Grin’s hypocrisy in wanting to deny Russian orphans the benefits that she received growing up in America, and that she continues to receive through her financial holdings there.

In just one of her US private banking arrangements, Grin earns close to $5,000 per year just in interest. And this is just one of her many bank accounts in the USA.  (Grin has also maintained bank accounts in other countries outside of Russia.)

For Grin, the benefit of having USA and Russian citizenship is clear:  she can appear poor in rubles to Russians she believes are too ignorant to suspect that an international corporate finance lawyer with US citizenship would also be rich in dollars.

Your voices of support, and the many concrete offers of help, have been a huge contribution. As we will report in a separate post, the Russian courts have begun to understand the lies and manipulations the children are experiencing, and have also issued judgments against the mother and Russian tabloid media that published her false story of “escape” from Italy without minimally attempting to verify it.

We will provide additional information about these developments in a future post, as well as what information we can about worrisome signs that have emerged yet again about the situation the children are enduring. But for now, we just wish to say……

The family and friends of the abducted children are hoping they will see these messages.

Sam, Eli, Sara and Ezra, we love you and miss you very much!

We have special presents for you from all the family, and we trust there will soon be a way for us to give them to you.

Remember lighting the chanukkìa at the Synagogue in Florence, and playing with all your friends?

Florence Synagogue at night

Sara, do you remember when you were just six years old and had just learned to  write, and you sat yourself in front of the TV looking for gifts to put on your list? That was a lot of fun!

Until we are together again for another joyful holiday, I send you a big hug and wish you all a very Happy Chanukkà.

Love, Papa

Happy Hanukkah from Grandpa, Roro, Ina, Kevin, Molly, Lorenzo, Zoe, and Maggi!

The children’s friends in Florence also send them their very best wishes, and to let them know that they are waiting for them to return soon!

NB:  there are different spellings of this holiday in English, all transliterations from Hebrew. Chanukkà is the spelling used in the children’s Talmud Torà (Talmud Torah) classes in Florence.

“Pink!” shouted the little girl. Pink was her favorite color.

“That’s right,” said the papa, continuing the story. “There were pink houses with pink rooms with pink people reading pink books. And little girls in pink pajamas tucked under pink sheets in pink beds.”

The little girl giggled. “Like me!” she said.

“Yes. And do you know what color the trees were?” the papa asked.

“Green!” answered the little girl, not falling for her father’s trick. “Plants are green because they need to get energy from the sun,” she explained.

The papa nodded proudly, “of course, nearly everything else in this land was pink. Except for one other thing….”

But maybe it would be better to let this story tell itself.

The Pink Princess

The Pink Princess woke up smiling in her pink bed. She had been sick for some days, but now she felt better.

The morning sun was shining into her bedroom, lighting the pink wall, the pink carpet on the floor and her pink sheets.

Everything was pink, as anyone could plainly see. Or nearly everything, except for the trees, which were green, and her horse, which was the color fuchsia.

The Pink Princess still had her head on her pink pillow when her fuchsia horse poked his head through the pink window. He made a funny snort to get her attention.

The Pink Princess laughed.

“You are such a funny horse!” she said. “And you are so good! Every day when I was sick you came to see me. You always worry about me.”

The horse snorted again.

“I think we will go for a very long ride today!”

The Pink Princess had a fuchsia-colored horse

The horse was happy to go for a ride. And he was even happier that the Pink Princess was feeling better. He had worried very much all the days that she was sick.

The pink nurse prepared a wonderful breakfast of delicious pink waffles with pink strawberries washed down with fresh pink milk. And then she gave the Pink Princess a pink bag with pink sandwiches for her lunch, for her long ride on her fuchsia horse.

The Pink Princess rode her horse proudly out the pink palace gates. Pink people riding pink bicycles and driving pink cars waved to them. A pink truck honked its horn. They passed a pink toy car on a pink ledge next to a pink flower pot.

They passed a pink toy car on a pink toy road in front of a pink flowerpot

Everyone stared at her fuchsia horse, because it was so different. The Pink Princess didn’t mind. She was very fond of her horse.

They rode past the pink shops, and past the pink post office, and the pretty pink school. Soon there were just a few pink houses, and only an occasional pink scooter or pink car.

And then they were in the countryside. They kept riding. It started to rain, so they stopped under a tree and had lunch. (The pink nurse had included some pink apples for the fuchsia horse.)

When they started to ride again, the Pink Princess saw that there was no longer anything that was pink. Just the green countryside. She liked it so much that she kept riding, and lost all track of the time.

It started to get late. And then it got later and later in the afternoon and still the Pink Princess and her fuchsia horse did not stop.

They had pink sandwiches under a tree. (The horse ate pink apples.)

With the sun going down, the Pink Princess started to worry that she was too far from home.

That was when she saw a man on a fuchsia bicycle, and he was fuchsia too!

Then she saw a fuchsia car, and a fuchsia house, and more fuchsia people.

She even saw a fuchsia dog chasing a fuchsia cat.

Soon, everything was fuchsia.

“Except the trees!” interrupted the little girl.

“They were green, as trees always are,” said the papa.

On a hill above the town, the Pink Princess could see a beautiful fuchsia castle. “There must be a princess there,” she thought.

She rode her fuchsia horse to the fuchsia-colored gates. She introduced herself to the castle guards. They were dressed in handsome fuchsia uniforms.

“May I be presented to your princess?” she asked in a gentle voice.

A fuchsia castle on the hill

“Immediately!” said the guards, recognizing her as a princess herself, and also noticing her fuchsia horse. They opened the gates and she rode into the castle grounds.

The Pink Princess got down from her horse and left him to drink some cool water. He was very thirsty.

The Fuchsia Princess appeared only a moment later. She gave her new friend a hug. She invited her inside to have dinner together, and to stay for the night.

The Pink Princess marveled at how beautiful everything was, even though it was not all pink.

They ate a delicious dinner of fuchsia spaghetti followed by fuchsia cake. While they were eating their cake, the Fuchsia Princess told the Pink Princess she thought her horse was beautiful.

“He is a very good horse, too,” said the Pink Princess.

“I have a beautiful horse that is also very good,” said the Fuchsia Princess. “Do you want to see him?”

“Oh yes!” answered the Pink Princess.

“And you’ll never guess what color he is,” said the Fuchsia Princess, as they walked together to the royal fuchsia stables.

“Fuchsia like mine?” asked the Pink Princess.

“See for yourself!” said the Fuchsia Princess, opening the stable door.

The Pink Princess could not hide her surprise. Inside was the most beautiful pink horse she had ever seen, in her favorite shade of pink, too! It’s saddle, however, was fuchsia.

“I never had a pink horse like yours,” she said.

The Fuchsia Princess said that was an incredible coincidence! “And I never had a fuchsia horse, to match everything else,” she said.

The pink horse (with fuchsia saddle)

“Why don’t we exchange our horses?” The princesses asked each other at the same time.

“That way our horses will match everything else we have,” said the Fuchsia Princess.

“That would be splendid,” said the Pink Princess. As soon as she said this, though, she wondered if it really was splendid.

By now it was very late indeed. The princesses brushed their teeth (the castle had fuchsia toothbrushes for guests) and went to bed under soft fuchsia covers and fuchsia sheets.

The Pink Princess could not sleep, though. All she could think about was her horse. She remembered how good he was, how he cared for her, never letting her fall. Often he came to school and waited for her outside.

She especially remembered how worried he looked when she was sick. He really loved her, she realized.

When morning came, she could not wait to tell the Fuchsia Princess of her decision.

“Your horse is very beautiful and his color matches everything in my palace….” the Pink Princess said. “But I love my horse too much, and for me there’s no horse better nor more beautiful. I’m afraid I cannot exchange horses. I am sorry to disappoint you.”

The Fuchsia Princess smiled a great big smile and said, “you know, I was going to say the very same thing!”

“I think we will be very good friends!” They both said at the same time.

The princesses then said their goodbyes, after making plans for the Fuchsia Princess to visit the Pink Palace.

The Pink Princess then rode back to the Pink Palace, very happily, on her fuchsia horse.

THE END

“Why didn’t she take a lunch with her?” asked the little girl. “It’s a long way back to the Pink Palace.”

“She did, of course,” answered the papa. “The fuchsia nurse prepared delicious fuchsia sandwiches for the princess and fuchsia apples for the horse. But it is late now and time for you to be asleep.”

“I know,” giggled the little girl. She gave her papa a kiss and closed her sleepy eyes. “I just like this story so much I didn’t want it to end.”

THE END (FOR REAL THIS TIME)

Sara and her papa

Copyright 2012 by Michael Mcilwrath

When Sara and her dad originally started making up these stories, they were called the “Lilly and the Dragon” stories, as Sara had a friend named Lilly who lived nearby and used to come play with her.

But there appears to be a very different book with a similar name, so the heroine has been renamed Sara.  Not the Sara who was creating the stories with her dad, of course.

No, this was just a Sara who, by coincidence, happened to be about the same age as our Sara, and who also happened to live in a place near many olive trees, and who also liked to ask all sorts of questions, and, just as coincidentally, also liked to play chess instead of going to bed when she was supposed to.

A Game of Chess

Sara was supposed to be asleep. She had finished her homework, and it was past her bedtime.
But she was not asleep. In fact, she was not even in bed. Instead, she sat by her window, looking at the stars above the trees.

“How far away is that one?” Sara asked herself, pointing to a star.

Sara was not very old, in fact she was no older than you are now.
And Sara loved to look at the stars. She would ask herself questions.
“How far away is that one?” or “How long would it take to go there?”
The next day, she would try to find answers.

Sara was thinking of another question to ask herself when she heard a noise.
Followed by a rumble.
She looked up, but there were only trees and the stars.
There was no noise coming from the sky.
So Sara looked down. The ground was moving.  No, Sara saw, something under the ground was moving!
The trees were shaking.
Sara asked herself, what could it be?

The noise got louder. And the rumbling got bigger.
All of a sudden a puff of smoke in many colors burst from the ground under a big olive tree.

Colored puffs of smoke burst from the ground under a big olive tree

Sara opened her window to see better.

When the smoke and dust settled, she could see something very large sitting on the ground.
What could it be?
It had a large head, a long tail, and wings.
It was a dragon!

The dragon stood up and shook off some dirt. Then it puffed some smoke from its nose.

“Hey!” Shouted Sara. “You were traveling under the ground!”
The dragon looked surprised. It turned towards Sara. Then it puffed more colored smoke and said, “excuse me. Who are you?”
“My name is Sara. Who are YOU?” She asked.
“I’m a dragon,” said the dragon.
“I can see that!” Said Sara, with a smile. “But what’s your name?”
“Name? I don’t have a name. I’m a dragon!”
Sara said, “I didn’t know dragons could travel under the ground like that.”
“Well,” said the dragon, “how many dragons have you ever met?”
“None,” said Sara. “I guess you make a good point.”
The dragon smiled.
So Sara decided to ask him, “What other things do you do?”
The dragon thought for a moment. Then he said, “well, you know, usual dragon stuff. I like to eat chestnuts and play chess.”
“Really?” said Sara. “I like to play chess, too!”
“I didn’t know little girls could play chess!” said the dragon, belching a thick cloud of red, yellow, and blue smoke.
“Well,” said Sara, “how many little girls have you ever met?”
“None,” said the dragon, and then with a smile, “Hmmm… I think you make a good point too!”
Sara smiled too.  Then she got out her chessboard, very quietly.

The dragon came close to the window, and Sara set the chessboard down and started putting the pieces in place.
“Black or white?” she asked.
“White, of course!” said the dragon, helping to put the pieces in place.
“Ok, then you go first.”
The dragon opened by playing the king’s pawn. Sara responded by moving out her knight.

“Interesting move,” said the dragon.

“Interesting move,” said the dragon.
They played a very enjoyable game. It ended in a draw.
Before the dragon left, Sara made him promise to come back soon for a rematch.

And then Sara finally fell asleep.

The petition to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is close to reaching 800 signatures!

The signatories hail from over 25 countries. Many have made personal pleas, often noting their personal knowledge of the situation, the children, and their family.

Thank you to everyone for helping to spread the word, and all of the encouragement and offers of support that the family is receiving.

The petition can be found at:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/848/883/039/

Here are some of the heart-felt comments left by signatories, organized geographically:

California

J. C.
Please return these four children to the care of their father and legal custodian. The ultimate well being of these children is at risk.

K. J.

This is a terrible injustice. I have known Mike and his entire family my whole life. They are an incredible family and Mike is a wonderful man. The children need him in their lives.

ND

Mike has been a great dad to these kids. I have known him for over 35 years.

K. M.
Do the right thing for these children. Now.

S. D.
This is heartbreaking! These children have a father and family that love and care for them. Their mother abducted and abandoned them! Bring them home now!

D. A.
It’s way past time for these kids to be home.

L. R.
Secretary of State Clinton, Please get involved in this international abduction issue (by a mentally unstable mother) and try to help bring these children home? Thank-you in advance

M. S.
These children need to be returned to their father before even more psychological harm is done. They need to start healing in a loving home, please help them!

K. M.
Everyone’s primary concern must be the safety of the children.

J. S.
Please bring these children home to their Daddy where they belong. The World is watching!

M. F.
This case has been adjudicated Madame Secretary, I implore you to its enforcement: four of our most valuable and vulnerable – children – are in compounding daily risk.

F. B.
I was in Michael’s home in Italy when Ms. Grin sent a photo to him with bruises on her face she claimed he caused the day before (there was no way it could have happened). She told him on the message she was planning to complain to local police he beat her. The children are now in the daily care of a highly articulate but unbalanced, mentally ill parent. The message this case sends to other Russian citizens who believe they can count on unconditional government shielding in such wrenching cases astonishes me. Please consider US government intervention.

K. K.
Please help now

R. W.
Please re-unit these kids with their family.

L. V.
Please do what is right for these children !!

J. M.
If the US government and its agencies will not act to protect its children, when they have the authority to do so, why should that government expect any support from its citizens?

N. W.
Please help bring these kids home.

A. C.
Please help these children find their way back to their father. Their mother needs medical attention herself and the brainwashing needs to stop. These children NEED their father. The Italian Courts even said so. And HE NEEDS HIS children!

R. M.
I am the grandmother of these 4 children. I know how sick their mother is and she has kept them from talking to family and friends as she continues her brain washing!!,,Please help us stop her.

ND CA
Thank you for your intervention in this very important issue.

B. B.
Please work to resolve this issue for these children. They belong with their father based on ruling by Italy courts. The childrn’s future depends on getting them home as soon as possible

Oregon

M. B.
Let the kiddos come home to their legal guardian. There is a reason he was given custody. Prosecute this woman to the full extent of the law for kidnapping. There are other ways she could have gone about trying to get custody of her children that are legal.

T. S.
This situation has been a nightmare for the children and for their father and his family. Michael is a wonderful and caring father. The US State Department should act to support the well-being of this family by engaging with the Russian Foreign Minister and court system to safely reunite the children with their father.

H. H.
Please do everything your power to bring these children home to their father…orphanages are for children who have no living relatives to care for them; these children have someone who desperately wants them back and is willing to care for them. Please insist that applicable international laws be followed for the sake of these children! Sincerely and with respect, Mrs. Hopkins

K. S.
Please help these kids make it home safely to their dad!

K. H.
Let’s get these kids back to dad!

Nevada

ND
Why isn’t the US government taking any action??

Arizona

L. H.
Please help these children reunite with their father.

P. F.
These children need to be returned to their father. To read the history of their kidnapping, to read the court’s assessment of Marianne Grin, to know personally from his early years Michael McIlwrath, to believe in his integrity and devotion to life and his children is to know unwaveringly that action needs to be taken now — by those with the power to bring them home.

C. R.
No child should be wards of the state when there is a loving family waiting for them. Please help expedite this process and get those children home.

Washington

D. D.
Please use the available resources of the US to bring resolution to this unnecessary situation and to protect these children.

Texas

M G.
Madam Secretary, Americans need to know that their government is willing and able to protect them at home and abroad. Swift diplomatic intervention is the only logical and acceptable response to such a tragedy.

C. S.
My prayer is that these children are rightfully returned to their father. The time to do this is now!

ND
These Children need to go home. Back to their father and in safe stable hands.

R. T.
This is not right for the kids!!!!

D. P.
Countries should not keep children away from their custodial parent. My heart breaks for this father.

E. F.
A serious message needs to be sent to parents who abduct their children and flee to a foreign country. The kids need to be returned to their father, their legal custodial parent

J. E.
For the welfare of the children, it is imperative that these children be returned to their father who was the custodial rights!

C. H.
I am hoping with all my hearts that those children are going to return safe home, to people that love and sincerely care about them.

ND
Dear Secretary Clinton, We are personal friends of Maggi and Michael’s – they are wonderful people who care immensely about their children! Please intervene on their behalf with the Russian government to bring their children home to them! With Respect,

Utah

R. R.
U.S. Sec. of State Hillary Clinton- Please help bring home four American children that were abducted by their psychologically unfit mother. Help them to be returned to their father. I refer you to Bring Florentine Children Home for more details.

Nebraska

C. P.
WITH ALL DUE RESPECT, PLEASE BRING THESE CHILDREN HOME TO THEIR FATHER AND STEP MOTHER. THEIR LIFES HAVE BEEN TORN IN HALF FOR OVER A YEAR NOW. I BELIEVE THESE CHILDREN ARE AT HARM. I BEG FOR THE GOVERNMENT TO HELP THIS FATHER GET HIS FAMILY BACK AND SAFE AND SOUND IN ITALY. THANK Y OU FOR LISTENING AND YOUR CONCERN

Wisconsin

M. M.
Mental illness is such a difficult disease. Please help these children regain a steady, healthy childhood and get their mother the help she so clearly needs.

K. P.
Please help these four wonderful children get home to their father, extended family and friends in Italy. This has gone on far too long.

Illinois
J. D.
Please get these kids back to their loving father!

C. P.
If anyone can do this, you can. Please put this on your list of very important things to do. The four children need your help.

District of Columbia

Please help these children to live a healthy, prosperous life with the family that loves them.

New York

J. H.
A friend of a friend (exactly that far removed) knows these kids and says the situation is urgent. Please look into this and make sure the children are reunited with their father.

J. N.
Mike loves his children and has worked hard to protect them from a terrible situation. We need to help get his kids back home.

S. L.
Please help return these children to a stable, loving home.

M. C.
Please help these children reunite with their Father.

G. AC.
The welfare of these children are at risk. There must be action soon! For everyday that passes 4 children are physically and mentally abused by this horrible injustice.

E. H.
This tragedy has been going on way too long. Please, act now and help bring these four children back to their loving family and friends.

Pennsylvania

K. G.
It is stunning that this is allowed to happen. I visited Mike several months before the children were abducted and had the pleasure of meeting two of the children who were just then emotionally recovering from the situation which gave rise to Mike getting sole custody, which is very rare in Italy. The sooner they are returned, the better.

E. P.
Ms. Clinton, Please protect the rights of these young citizens.

S. H.
Dear Secretary Clinton, This is a heartbreaking situation and an outrageous example of the Russian authorities failing to follow the law as needed to protect innocent children. Please do whatever you can to return these children to their family in Italy.

S. B.
The country should do what’s right, and uphold the law. The children must be returned to their Father, their family and rightfully so.

Maryland

A. M.
Please look into this case and do everything possible to reunite these children and their father and bring them back home to Italy.

Canada

H H., BC
Please think of the children and return them to their father. This is a tragic situation and the well-being of the children should come first and foremost.

M. G., AB
This happened the the niece and nephew of a friend of mine and those children were murdered by their mother in Turkey and the father was never allowed to see their bodies. Please help these children.

Italy

M. F.
Please, give the children the chance to grow in a safe environment, possibly happy, and beloved in a healthy way.

G. D B.
Please do whatever you can to bring these children back to a normal and happy family life.

R. F.
I know the childreen, they need the father and all their friends!!!!

M. B.
I personally know Mike. He is a person that doesn’t deserve such things. I hope he can join very soon with his lovable children.

A. G.
help the Children to protect their right to be again together with their loving father.

G. N.
I know Mike ….he is a terrific person. Always I will remember his kids’ photos and footprint of different sizes hanging on the wall of his office.

R. G.
It is a priority for any child to get love, care and support and I hope this signature can help them to get all these things back again with Mike soon.

M. C.
Children are suffering for this incledible situation. We have to do whatever is possible to help them.

E. B.
This is a SHAME and we need to act fast to protect these children and give them back to their careful father!!

L. F.
Bring them back where they belong, now!

R. DS,
Bring kids home, they deserve to have a balance life, opportunities and most at all … lots of love! they can get all of this with thier father.

ND
I truly hope that these wonderful kids will come back home with their loving father soon.

C. A.
Save the children absolutely!

D. A.
please help return these children to their father now.

B. B.
… it’s the right thing to do…

A. E.
I really hope this bad story has a happy ending

C. F.
Please help to bring these 4 childen home… they deserve a quite and happy life back HOME to their father!

S. A.
this is a horrible crime against four innocent children- they need to be brought home to Florence where they belong!

L. S.
Everybody of us can live far from his home suffering sadness and melancholy….but not a child! Please make happy these kids…you can do.

S. S.
Please, help them to come back to their father. Thank you

D. F.
se la madre non fosse stata dichiarata psicologicamente non adatta ad essere affidataria. NON avrebbe rapito i 4 bambini, situazione molto pericolosa anche per l’incolumità di essi

M. A.
Please help end this nightmare that the children are suffering. They belong home with their dad, surrounded by friends and family who love them.

D. A.
Please help these children!

Russian Federation

A. V.
I am currently in Russia. The kids must be returned to their Father and family back home in Italy.

Panama

R. F T.
Please help to end this terrible situation for these children and help to reunite with their beloved dad. Thank you !!

Austria

J. D.
You CAN DO it, Ms. Clinton. You can. Just do it

France

H. T.
Please help to ensure that the childrens’ well being is taken care of as soon as possible and they can live again among their family and friends in their home town.

C. S.
I am an American citizen living in France. I support this petition and fervently hope that the US government can intervene without further delay in this case for the good of the children.

J. M.
If there’s any reason we pay taxes to fund our government, it’s for these moments to bring justice to children who deserve a happy childhood.

J. F.
As a U.S. citizen living abroad with my family, I greatly hope that you help end the nightmare for these four children and their father.

Luxembourg

S. S.
Please, Help him!

Chile

L. M.
Please help this father to have contact with his children.

South Africa

S. E.
Unbelievable that cases like this could still occur (and be allowed) in modern society.

Australia

W. P.
What these children have gone through is extremely traumatic. The mother has not considered their needs or well being at all. The children are precious and need to be safely home with their father and family and friends where they can be loved and cared for appropriately. Please help these children. They have no voice or power and need those with the power in all USA and Russia to bring them home. God bless them and their father.

C. M.
Taking a child away from their life is abuse! The parent is selfish & NOT thinking about their child & their needs! There is plenty of help at home if they need it without skipping countries & abusing their child.

C. S.
Parental Child Abduction is Child Abuse. These children need to be returned to Italy now so that their human rights can be restored.

New Zealand

ND
Please do help these children before it is too late for them. They need to be with loving family who can care for them full time.

S. H.
It appears that the mother has serious mental health issues, you must act to support the Russian authorities to comply with the Hague Convention and return the children to their father.

Elliot, summer 2011, during his vacation with his grandparents and uncle in California, just before the kidnapping.

As we have received many requests to make more of Elliot’s book available, here is the continuation:

The Half Elf, Chapter 4: Where Is Andrew Taking Me?

The room was bright, and led immediately to another hallway. Andrew obviously knew where he was going, and I followed him and Edward.  As we walked, I could feel the notebook tossing around in my sweatshirt and decided to take it out and jot down some notes. 

I marked it “top secret” on the cover, but then realized that would probably just make it a better target for a thief. So I slipped it back under my sweatshirt.

Continue reading The Half Elf, Chapter 4.

Or visit The Half Elf page of this webiste for other chapters and information about Elliot and his book.

You can always count on good people to speak up and lend a hand, all over the world!

Family and friends of the abducted children have been heartened by the response to the petition asking US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton to help bring the children home. Since its launch last week, over 500 people from around the world have signed!

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/848/883/039/

Those signing hail from Canada, Austria, UK, France, Germany, Norway, Hungary, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Ireland, Poland, Bulgaria, Mexico, Brazil, Panama, Egypt, South Africa, Qatar, UAE, New Zealand, Australia, Singapore and even Russia!

In the United States, the signers come from California, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Texas, North Carolina, DC, Nevada, Arizona, Washington, Connecticut, Missouri, Massachusetts, Iowa, Idaho, Montana, Minnesota, Maryland, Georgia, New Hampshire, Oregon, Ohio, Oklahoma, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Colorado, and Hawaii.

To everyone so far, THANK YOU!

Since we have no way to contact you, we hope that maybe you will have access to a computer and will find this note.

Remember last year when you were home in Florence, and you got a pink bike for your birthday? You were very happy. Zoe wanted to ride it, so you helped her.

And remember when you, Ezra, and Papa went for a ride with your new bike and got so many blackberries, you and Papa and Ezra were shouting “more! more! (blackberries! blackberries!)” each time you saw some good ones to eat? Some were hard to reach so you and Papa helped Ezzie, lifting him up to pick some more of his own.

This year, Papa, Grandpa, Roro, Molly, Zoe, Maggi, Lorenzo all wish you a Happy Birthday, and we are thinking of you and have presents that we hope we’ll be able to give you. We are all very proud of you and miss you very much, and we want you home as soon as possible.

And Papa would like to say to you, “see you later, alligator…” (you know the rest…”boop ti do be do be doo”).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Dear Madam Secretary,

Aunt Molly last summer with Sara, and her little cousin, Zoe, who adores and misses her

English version of Molly’s letter, published in the Corriere Fiorentino newspaper. Original in Italian is below.

Indifference, and Judicial System Without Humanity

Dear Director [of Corriere Fiorentino],

What is a mother? A mother is a person in that she is a vessel of diverse experiences – some even contradictory – including pain and pleasure, thoughts, hopes and prejudices, desires, or even self- love and hatred for others. What happens when this delicate balance is thrown off and the suffering of a psychiatric illness turns her world inside out and in doing so drags her children along with her? What happens when the mother, in this state of devastation, purports to be the owner of her own children and the fortress/prison that encloses them? What happens when all of her fears and her obsessions become the only walls of the world in which her children must remain?

In fleeing to Russia, her native country, Marianne Grin took her four children with her without worrying about their scholastic needs, their health, or their friends and family. It’s not just their father who is missing them, but also their uncles and aunt, their grandparents and their cousin. She took them with her, considering them objects that she possesses. And that is just how she treated them. When they were too burdensome for her she placed them in institutes and orphanages of Ultra-Orthodox Judaism to then be able to take them out when it was convenient for her in order to use them as weapons in the war waged against her husband.

Can a mother directly inject the poison of her insanity into the minds of her children and taint their entire future lives and imprint their psyches with the wounds of a suffering that is not even their own? In Italy you can, thanks to the complacent indifference of those who are supposed to be ordered by the law to prevent it.

The judicial authorities wipe their hands clean just like Pontius Pilate. In fact, they are the ones whose negligence and logically incoherent decisions permitted Marianne’s escape. And now they continue to take their time, and lose time, demonstrating supreme indifference towards the irremediable damage that their attitude will produce in the lives of these four children.

Bureaucracy has its timetable they say. And I respond to this that the “banality of evil” – as Hannah Arendt tells us – appears to present itself in the public institutions of every country involved here, Italy, Russia and the United States of America, and also in the religious institutions that Marianne used to her advantage.

Too many times we have been told by public officials and representative of religious communities that these are family problems that they can do nothing about. But I want to remind you here that if Marianne Grin fled to Russia illegally it is because of the unorganized Italian judicial system that gave her access to the children when they had a warning by the father’s lawyer with concerns about a potential attempt to flee, and it is the fault of a shameful complicity of a group of religious figures.

And if the children are still in Russia it is a because of the usual Italian justice system (it took 7 months to write one document – without effective consequences – where the Italian police are ordered to search for the children in Italy and in Russia); it is because of the Russian justice system that so far refuses to recognize the exclusive parental custody decision of the Italian court to the father; it is because of the absence of the direct involvement of all of the governments involved here, whether Italian, Russian or American, that simply demonstrate indifference regarding my niece and nephews, dual American and Russian citizens, born and raised in Italy, all of them legal residents in Italy, 3 of them born in Italy, but in fact, all Stateless and currently citizens of a No Man’s Land. And each of these public officials – who all speak different languages – says the same thing: we understand your pain, but we have to do our job.

With this letter I am addressing all of the authorities responsible here: Italian, Russian and American, is it really impossible to reconcile the timetables of bureaucracy and legal administration with that of the saving of the life of a human being?

Molly McIlwrath
The children’s aunt

Original Italian version, published together with articles about the refusal of Marianne Grin to permit the children to be visited by their long-time friends from Italy or their uncle, who came to see them in Russia from California.

L’INDIFFERENZA
E QUESTA GIUSTIZIA
SENZA UMANITÀ

Caro direttore, che cos’è una madre?

Una madre è una persona che, in quanto tale, è un contenitore di esperienze diverse e anche contraddittorie, di dolori e di piaceri, di pensieri, di speranze di pregiudizi, di desideri, di amore di sé, di odio per gli altri. Che cosa succede quando questo delicato equilibrio è turbato e il dolore — quello di una malattia psichiatrica — travolge una madre e con essa i suoi figli?

Che cosa succede quando la madre, in questo stato di devastazione, pretende di essere la proprietaria dei propri bambini, la fortezza carcere dentro cui chiuderli, con la scusa di proteggerli dal mondo? Che cosa succede quando tutte le sue paure, le sue ossessioni diventano le uniche pareti del mondo dentro cui i bambini devono stare?

Con questa fuga in Russia, il suo Paese nativo, Marianne si è portata dietro i suoi figli, senza preoccuparsi della loro esigenze scolastiche, dei problemi di salute, delle relazioni amicali e familiari. Qui non c’è solo il padre ad aspettarli, ma anche gli zii, i nonni, la cuginetta. Se li è portati dietro, considerandoli cose sue. E come tali li ha trattati.

Quando sono stati troppo ingombranti li ha depositati in istituti e orfanotrofi di ebrei ultraortodossi, per poi riprenderli quando le erano utili come armi da usare nella guerra al marito.

Può una madre, impunemente, instillare il veleno della propria follia nella mente dei figli, avvelenare la loro vita futura, marchiandoli con il fuoco di un dolore che non è loro?

In Italia si può, grazie anche alla complice indifferenza di chi invece dovrebbe essere deputato dalla legge ad evitarlo. L’autorità giudiziaria si lava le mani come Ponzio Pilato; eppure è questa che, con le sue negligenze e le sue decisioni logicamente incoerenti, ha permesso a Marianne la fuga. E ora continua a prendere tempo, a perdere tempo, dimostrando suprema indifferenza verso i danni irrimediabili che questo suo atteggiamento produrrà nelle vite dei bambini. La burocrazia ha i suoi tempi, ci dicono.

Ed io rispondo a questo che la «banalità del male» — come ci dice Hannah Arendt — sembra ripresentarsi nelle istituzioni pubbliche di ogni Paese coinvolto, Italia, Russia, Gli Stati Uniti, e anche nelle istituzioni religiose che Marianne ha usato a proprio vantaggio. Troppe volte ci siamo sentiti rispondere da pubblici ufficiali e rappresentanti di comunità religiose che questi sono problemi familiari rispetto ai quali loro non possono fare nulla.

Ma voglio qui ricordare che se Marianne è fuggita in Russia illegalmente è a causa della farraginosa macchina giudiziaria italiana che le ha consegnato i bambini quando a loro era già stato segnalato il pericolo di fuga, e a causa della colpevole complicità di alcuni religiosi. E se i bambini sono ancora in Russia è a causa dei tempi della solita giustizia italiana (7 mesi ci sono voluti per scrivere un documento — senza conseguenze effettive — con il quale si ordina alla polizia di ricercare i bambini in Italia e in Russia).

È a causa della giustizia russa che disconosce la decisione del tribunale italiano dell’affidamento esclusivo dei bambini al padre; è a causa dell’assenza di un intervento diretto dei governi coinvolti, quello italiano, quello russo e quello americano, che mostrano indifferenza sulla sorte dei miei nipoti, cittadini americani e russi, tutti e quattro residenti in Italia, tre di loro nati in Italia, ma di fatto, figli di una terra di nessuno.

E ognuno di questi pubblici ufficiali, che parlano lingue diverse, dicono la stessa cosa: comprendiamo il vostro dolore, ma noi dobbiamo fare il nostro lavoro.

Mi rivolgo a tutte le autorità responsabili qui, italiane, russe e americane: è davvero così impossibile conciliare i tempi dell’amministrazione della giustizia con la salvezza della vita di un essere umano?

Molly McIlwrath
Zia dei bambini

As we have received many requests to make more of Eli’s book available, here is Chapter 3.

Chapter 3:  Astengurt

The cell had stone walls, a wooden bench where I was stretched out, and nothing else. As I stood up, a man wearing a red cloak appeared. He opened the cell, which apparently had not been locked, and pulled me up gently by the arms.

“You have not been harmed,” he said, as if saying that would make it true, but it did not make my head feel any better.  “And more importantly,” he continued, “you are being awaited.” He spoke politely, with a slight accent I’d never heard but that faintly reminded me of how Andrew sometimes spoke.

He gestured in the direction I was to go, and bowed as I passed him, as if I was someone important or going to see someone important, or both.

Continue reading The Half Elf, by Elliot Mcilwrath, Chapter 3