Era was born to an aristocratic family as the Russian Revolution raged. She was two months old when they fled to one of the last open ports on the Black Sea where they boarded a ship bound for Constantinople. They left Russia wealthy, landed gentry and stepped off the boat refugees. Era spent her childhood in exotic Constantinople and the Turkish countryside. She went back to Russia with her mother and sister on two harrowing trips, the second time knowing they could never return. When World War II erupted, she travelled with her wealthy husband from Iran to Lebanon as the English pushed the Germans from the Middle East. When the Americans entered the war her world came apart and changed forever.