Winter in Eastern Europe, when there was a deep division between East and West, people felt the cold deep in their bones.

They endured the cold, but they feared what could happen to them, chilling them to their core. Sometimes fear is a great motivator.

And so it was for Fountain Hills resident Hedy Fossenkemper’s family, who decided to get out from behind the Iron Curtain. They lived in Hungary, where Hedy was an 18-month-old baby, hardly aware of the terrors inflicted on people living in Communist Hungary.

Last summer, Hedy and her husband, Allen, returned to her first home to visit those places she had learned about as she grew up.

“This was a terrible time,” Hedy said. “People were being murdered or tortured. My father decided we had to leave.”

The family left by way of the bridge at Andau, the title of James Michener’s book. The bridge was the only crossing place not physically guarded by the Soviets.

“It was a very risky escape,” she said. “It was just the three of us, my mother, my father and me. My mother carried only a small bag with diapers for me.”

When the plan began to take shape, the family considered going to Germany. A family friend encouraged them to immigrate to the United States. With the help of Catholic Charities, they traveled to the U.S., arriving in New Jersey and staying for a time with Hedy’s uncle. They later went to a refugee camp at Kilmer.

While Hedy has no recollection of her family’s escape from Communism, she is well-aware of her history and how fortunate they were to have left.

“And I was so fortunate to have talked about this with my parents while they were still alive,” she said. “My dad died of kidney cancer. He was in hospice for a month and a half. During that time, he told me the stories, and I recorded them.”

Her brother, who was born in New Jersey, also had a diary from their father, detailing life in Hungary and the escape from their homeland. Hedy has a copy of the diary.

“In 1986, after we had been in the United States for 30 years, I wrote a letter to Ronald Reagan,” she said.

She wrote to him about her family’s saga, and about how grateful they were to be in the United States.

She received a letter in return from the president.

“It is a beautiful letter,” Hedy said. “He expressed his deep feelings for this country and for the way people have found freedom here.”

And now, some 60 years after arriving in the U.S., Hedy continues to feel grateful for their blessings.

“We arrived in the United States on Christmas Eve, 1956,” she said. “A very special day indeed.”