My Story

I was born in Vancouver and lived in Manila until I was three years old, before moving to Hong Kong. Like many individuals with an international background, I grew up as a third-culture kid, developing my own unique identity while amalgamating different aspects of my native heritage with my adopted culture along the way.

My love for history began when I was very young; I was always drawn to the writings of novelists, historians and journalists whose vivid prose transported me to a different time period that was so far removed from my own.

As I grew up I chose a different path. I’ve always loved to cook and decided to pursue my passion for food in the F&B industry, training as a chef and opening up two restaurants in New York City along the way. But I never stopped reading and once the pandemic hit, it created an unexpected opportunity for me to delve back into one of my past academic pursuits.

In the spring of 2020, I came across the subject of the book in a documentary that was produced by one of the main protagonist’s granddaughters. Having never heard of this story myself, I was captivated by the topic and began exploring this unfamiliar chapter of WW2 history. To conduct my research, I read numerous books on the subject and worked closely with archivists online at various presidential libraries, institutes and museums around the world. During the summer of 2020, I tracked down and spent countless hours interviewing several ninety-year-old Holocaust survivors based in New York, New Jersey and Jerusalem, as well the descendants of all the gentlemen featured in The Manila Poker Club, including an American president’s granddaughter in Washington, DC, and a Philippine president’s grandson in Manila.

Loving history is like embracing your own time machine; it allows us to understand the past, learn from human triumphs and failures, and find captivating real-life stories to rival any great work of fiction.

Above all else, it is a great source of inspiration, for it demonstrates how ordinary people with courage and conviction can overcome the most insurmountable odds to affect extraordinary change.