my life changing experience

My name is Melissa Losada. I was born in Michigan in the year 1995. I lived there with my mom until my younger sister Rebecca was born. Soon after we moved to West Virginia to be with my grandmother, it was 1996 I was two years old when I moved to the city of Beckley, West Virginia and that is the only place I have ever lived since. Beaver elementary is where I went to elementary school, I lived directly in front of the school so I was never really far from home. Back then my mom was our girl scout troop leader and we were the “Brownies” which was our group name. I enjoyed school as a kid.
As I moved up to middle school I started going to Shady Spring middle school. I ran track for the school, usually the two hundred meter race and I was also a part of a volunteer club. While volunteering we did a lot of different things, usually fundraisers to raise money for various causes and we often visited nursing homes to play games or have conversation with some of the residents. Within a few visits I eventually made a new friend, Francis. She lived in Greystone nursing homes. I was in eighth grade when I met her. She spoke quietly and she had a heavy accent which I found difficult to comprehend at times. One Sunday my group was visiting the residents so I decided to invite Francis to attend the church service they were having at the home and she told me that she would not go with me and wanted to stay home.
A few weekends later we visited the home again. Francis was among some of the residents that were eating lunch so I decided to sit and converse with her for a bit. As I did she began to inform me that she was Jewish -not Christian. I apologized and she proceeded to tell me about a sensitive chapter of her life. She said when she was young she lived in Germany, she told me stories about living in the country under Hitler’s control. She said that Hitler took over her home and her family and forced them to work for days with little food so she would eat the grass on