To Heaven and Back

A fascinating true-life story: powerfully moving and incredibly passionate, leaving the reader with a strong sense of reflection. The book displays raw emotions in telling the story about the two very different marriages and the strength the author possessed through some very challenging years.

After the death of her second husband and being exhausted by life, the author changed her life by moving two thousand kilometres from her memories to start a new life for herself. In her late spring, a much younger man changed her life forever. A new town in tropical Queensland became her heaven on earth. An incredible love story was there for the taking, but her moral obligation, along with the fear of hurting her lover by tying him to her, made her leave him, taking exile in the Philippines.

Writing this book become the author’s therapy and obsession. It was never intended to be published but, after four years, she returned to her beloved Croatia alone. The circle of her life journey has closed, and healing of her soul has begun.

Melissa was born on 6 April 1941 in Sisak, Croatia (then part of Yugoslavia). Soon after she finished her secondary education, she met the man who became her husband, and two years later their son was born. In 1966 she and the family left the country in search of a better life in Austria and Germany, and three years later they emigrated to Australia. The marriage fell away, and she remarried seven years later. She continued her education and was successful in business for many years. After the death of her second husband, Melissa left Australia to live in the Philippines. Four years later, with these memoirs in her hands, she returned to Croatia alone, closing the circle of her journey.