J.B.Gattini, From Smokie to Eric: A Story of Redemption
What happens when a man who spent much of his life in gangs, drugs and prison is given another chance? In this personal story, EMN founder and editor J.B. Gattini recalls meeting Eric, a former gang leader who had spent 24 years behind bars, and witnessing his difficult but remarkable transformation. Through work, friendship, faith, fatherhood and many honest conversations, the man once known as “Smokie” gradually became someone almost unrecognizable from his past. Eric’s Story is ultimately about redemption — and about how much a human being can change when someone is willing to see more than his history.
Interview with Annette Herfkens, the Sole Survivor of the Plane Crash in Vietnam
How does one person survive when everyone else is gone? In this compelling EMN interview, J.B. Gattini speaks with Annette Herfkens, the sole survivor of a 1992 plane crash in the Vietnamese jungle, where she spent eight days injured, alone and surrounded by wreckage. Her story is not only about survival, but about love, loss, intuition, acceptance and a profound shift in consciousness.
Years later, Herfkens returned to the mountain where everything changed — not for closure, she says, but to open her heart.
J.B. Gattini, The Time of My Life: Reception
What was a young Lithuanian consul doing at one of Moscow’s grandest diplomatic receptions just a year after the Soviet Union collapsed — and why was everyone staring at her? In this personal story, EMN founder and editor J.B. Gattini recalls an extraordinary evening that brings back memories of Lithuania’s fight for independence, diplomatic tension, unexpected love, and the surreal experience of watching history turn in her country’s favor. Reception is a vivid firsthand glimpse into a moment when enemies could become colleagues, an empire had disappeared, and a young diplomat realized that the adventure was only beginning.
J.B. Gattini, Reunion
What happens when a child is told that someone she loves should disappear from her life? In this deeply personal story, EMN founder and editor J.B. Gattini recalls being separated from her father at the age of ten — and the letter, written twenty years later, that changed everything. Reunion is a moving story about family, forgiveness, lost time and second chances, and a reminder that sometimes one act of courage can reopen a door we thought had closed forever.
