Publishing his story!

Hello. My name is Robert Ljuba (left in the picture). My grandfather John Ljuba to the right of me has been battling Colon Cancer for the past couple of years. It has been very tough on our family of 6 being as which he was full of energy, had the biggest heart, and had the personality that welcomed complete strangers to talk to him. John was a machinist born on the island of Zlarin who moved here with my grandmother Lisa Ljuba in the early 60's The two of them met in Germany when my grandfather was deployed there while he served his short stent in the military. They moved here not knowing the language nor having relatives here, but they both shared the passion of moving to California. When they moved here they only had 2 wooden crates with their belongings which still are in our possession and will continue to be passed down as time goes on. Once established my grandfather continued his machinist trade at USS Posco in Pittsburg, CA for 30 years which lead to his retirement so he could tend to his hobby of gold panning. John has been gold panning since 1972 and even manufacturers his own sluice boxes in the back yard where he built his own mini machine shop to feed his hobby. He swears that his boxes are the best on the market haha. It was just recently where I was going to visit him daily to get my 1hr lesson on being a machinist when the effects of cancer made him ineligible to be active enough to teach me.

This fundraiser is to help publish my grandfather's book which he has been writing since the 1970's. The book is simply the story begins with John at age 5 and continues on to explore this amazing man's life and how him and my grandmother accomplished their American Dream and the trials and tribulations they faced while doing so. The title is not set in stone, but as of now the title is (Ivica: The Story of an Immigrant). Ivica was his birth name and then was changed to John once he moved to the states. The manuscript is 408 pages! This story I truly feel will captivate it's audience no matter who or how old they are. The family doesn't have enough funds to publish it nationwide, but I feel that there are enough kind people in this world to help us achieve this goal! I have already written the Oprah Foundation for help...no response yet.


The Ljuba family thanks those who will help and those who have helped already!