What a Story – A Real Food Fertility Miracle!

This isn't the first Kitchen Kop guest post from my super sweet friend, Stanley Fishman (see below), and I certainly hope it isn't the last.  I am absolutely floored and honored that he chose to share this amazing story here on my blog…

You will love this story!!

And I hope you'll want to pass it along to all those who are about to be married, those who are newly married, or couples who are married but have no kids yet!

A Real Food Fertility Miracle
By Stanley A. Fishman, author of Tender Grassfed Meat & Tender Grassfed Barbecue

Anna wanted children more than anything else.  Yet, the doctors had told her she would never be pregnant.  After two failed marriages, at age 36, without ever having had a single hint of pregnancy, she believed them.

But they were wrong.

Anna was born into a wealthy Russian family that lived in Manchuria. But the family was not a happy one.  Her parents did not get along. Shortly after Anna was born, her mother moved to Germany, over six thousand miles away.  She was raised by various servants. Her older sister, Eugenia, did what she could to take care of her. But Anna missed the mother who had left her, who she hardly knew. She decided that she would have children of her own, someday, and that she would give them all the love and mothering that she never had.

Anna, her brother, and Eugenia, caught a terrible fever one year.  They almost died.

The doctor had grim news. The fever had damaged them, and they would never have children. Anna refused to believe this. Eugenia married, and never got pregnant. The brother got married, and never had children. But Anna refused to believe that she would have the same fate. Anna grew up to be a very beautiful woman, by the standards of her time. She could be kind, charming, exciting, and generous, but she could also be cold, arrogant, and unforgiving. She looked exactly like a famous actress, Deanna Durbin, so much so that strangers would yell “Deanna Durbin”, and ask for her autograph. Many men fell in love with her. She got married young.

After a few years, there was no pregnancy, and the marriage ended.

Time passed. During the turmoil before World War II, her father died, and the family lost all its money and power. Anna and Eugenia wound up in Shanghai, China, where there was a large Russian community. Eugenia, who had divorced her unfaithful husband and was desperate for money, married a much older man, a very wealthy landlord, and Anna married a very handsome German nobleman, an anti-Nazi who had been forced to flee Germany. Again, there was no pregnancy. When World War II came, Anna’s husband was arrested by the Japanese. Food was short, and Anna often did not know where her next meal would come from. Eugenia took her in, but there was a problem. Eugenia’s husband demanded that Anna sleep with him. Anna, fiercely loyal to her sister, refused. Eugenia’s husband threw her out of his house, and forbade Eugenia to feed her or help her in any way. Often, Eugenia would smuggle some food to her, using a number of different strategies. Anna was often hungry.

The war ended, but the Chinese Civil War soon began. Anna’s husband was released, but the marriage broke up. When the communists were marching on Shanghai, Eugenia’s husband knew they would take his property and had a heart attack. He was no longer able to manage his affairs and Eugenia took over. She made arrangements for them to immigrate to the United States, and she arranged for Anna to immigrate. They left on separate ships. The ship Anna was on was very crowded with refugees like her, and the food was scarce and terrible. Anna flirted with a couple of the ship’s officers, and soon had private quarters and a seat at the officers’ table.

This turned out to be a terrible mistake.

When the ship reached San Francisco, Anna was arrested and thrown into detention. Some of her fellow passengers were jealous and resentful of the special treatment she got on the ship, and claimed she was a Soviet spy. This was at the very height of the Cold War, and the allegations were believed. Eugenia hired attorneys. After a frustrating legal battle, they decided that Anna's best chance was to be deported to Canada, and try to re-enter the U.S. at a later time. They retained a lawyer in Vancouver, Canada, to arrange for Anna to go to Canada. The Canadian lawyer quickly obtained permission for Anna to immigrate to Canada, though she would have to go to Vancouver. But the U.S. authorities did not want to release her, even though they could find no evidence beyond the accusations made by some passengers. The legal battle dragged on. Eventually, the Canadian lawyer took over the strategy of the battle, advising the U.S. lawyers on how to try approach after approach, and how to discredit the witnesses. He was relentless and tenacious, and would not give up. When one approach failed, he quickly came up with another. Eventually, Anna was released from detention, and landed at Vancouver.

A family she had known in Manchuria offered to take her in, and gave her a room.

Soon she learned that their son wanted to marry her, and that this was the reason for their generosity. Anna was not attracted to the son, who was plain, and worse yet, bald. The situation got tense. At a party, Anna noticed a well dressed man staring intently at her. He was good looking, but bald. The man came up to her and introduced himself. He turned out to be the very same lawyer whose strategy had secured her release. He asked her out to dinner. Anna was not attracted to a bald man, but she felt she owed him at least one dinner. He took her out to a steakhouse, and she had steak for the first time in many years. She could not believe how good it tasted, and how hungry she was for it.

She also loved the rich butter sauce that came with the steak.

At this time, food in Canada had not yet been industrialized.  The fish were wild, from pristine waters. The beef was grassfed, from healthy cows raised on the rich Canadian prairies. The berries and vegetables were fresh, natural, and unsprayed. Artificial fertilizer was not yet in use. The soil had been farmed with far less intensity than comparable soil in the U.S., and was rich with a natural balance of nutrients. Anna had never had food of this quality before.

After Anna wolfed down her delicious grassfed dinner, the lawyer asked her out to breakfast.

Anna accepted, somewhat to her own surprise. The lawyer asked her what flowers she liked. Anna loved flowers, but only living, not cut. She replied, “You can just bring caviar.” Caviar, salted, fermented fish eggs, was a favorite Russian food, and Vancouver had a sizable Russian community. Where there are Russians, there is caviar. Anna said this as somewhat of a joke, as the beluga Caviar she knew of was very expensive. The next morning, the lawyer arrived, with a small white box full of salmon caviar, which was far less expensive. Anna excused herself, wolfed down the caviar, and found that she loved it. At breakfast, Anna had a filet mignon steak and eggs, fried in butter. She found the butter served with bread to be wonderful, and smeared large amounts of it on her bread. The steak and eggs were wonderful as well.

After breakfast, the lawyer asked her to lunch. 

Anna, who had just had two of the most satisfying meals of her life, accepted. This time, they went to a restaurant that specialized in fresh-caught seafood. Vancouver, being a port, had fresh seafood brought in every day. Anna once again ate a huge meal of various kinds of wild fish, served with a wonderful butter sauce. After lunch, the lawyer asked her to dinner that evening. Anna accepted again. Amazingly, this went on for three months. The lawyer took Anna out to eat three times a day, every day. They usually went to the same restaurants for a particular meal, but Anna never tired of the wonderful bounty of the Canadian sea and plains. She had grassfed steak twice a day, once at breakfast, once at dinner. She ate huge amounts of the rich, pastured prairie butter, wonderful pastured eggs with deep orange yolks, wild salmon and other fish that had been caught earlier that morning, and delicious sauces rich with butter. Every morning, the lawyer brought her a small carton of caviar, and every morning, Anna ate it before they left for breakfast. Anna did not gain weight. She felt healthier than she ever had, and found that she enjoyed the lawyer’s company. He was friendly, interesting, and obviously in love with her. Yet he was strong and dignified.

She began to forget that he was bald.

But her conscience began to bother her. He obviously wanted to marry her, but he did not know she could not have children. She decided to tell him, even though she was convinced that he would lose interest in her. One day at lunch, Anna lost her appetite. She stared straight at the lawyer and said “I can never have children.” As Anna got up to leave, the lawyer said “Wait. Since I first saw your photo, I . . .” He did not finish the sentence, and asked her to come to dinner one last time.  She agreed.

At dinner, the lawyer pulled out an engagement ring, and proposed.  Anna, shocked that he still wanted her, accepted. They were married within weeks. A few months later, Anna started throwing up in the morning.  Though Anna did not know it, the food she had been eating so much of, the caviar, the pastured butter, and the seafood, were the same sacred foods that the healthy peoples studied by Dr. Weston A. Price used to promote fertility. The large amounts of grassfed meat she ate helped her body renew itself and recover from the damage that had been done.

Nine months later, at the age of 37, Anna gave birth to a large, very hungry baby boy. That baby was me.

What a great story, Stan, thank you so much for sharing this with us!

More you might like:

• ANOTHER infertility real food story!!!

• Read more about overcoming infertility
• There's more here about healthy eating before conception, for pregnancy, and feeding kids
• Buy Stan's book:  Tender Grassfed Barbecue: Traditional, Primal and Paleo
• Read the story of Stanley's miracle healing and health recovery when he began eating Real Food.  🙂
• Check out his first book:  Tender Grassfed Meat: Traditional Ways to Cook Healthy Meat.
• Charcoaled Pork Roast with French Brine from “Tender Grassfed Barbecue” by Stanley Fishman
• Also be sure to visit his blog:  TenderGrassfedMeat.com. 

If YOU have any Real Food miracle stories to share (or another real food fertility miracle!), tell us about it in the comments, even if it's something you think of as ‘small'.