For the past 34 years, Erminia Locatelli Rogers has lived quietly on her farm near New Windsor, painting in her studio and teaching art for several years at St. John's Catholic School in Westminster.
In her book, "Romualdo Locatelli: Memoirs 1938 to 1946," Mrs. Rogers, 86, recounts a life that has been anything but quiet. The 157-page volume, recently published by an Indonesian publisher, details the author's years living in Southeast Asia with her husband, artist Romualdo Locatelli.
When they left Italy in 1938 for Bali and Jakarta, the young couple had no idea that they would end their life together in war-torn Manila, caught in the Philippine city during the Japanese occupation of World War II.
In the preface to her book, Mrs. Rogers writes: "My story resembles a kind of scriptwriter's invention, however, we lived it. I survived, my husband did not."
"These are our Oriental memories, our last adventures together in an apocalyptic situation of war."
When the Locatellis sailed from Naples on a cruise ship bound for Singapore in December of 1938, Mr. Locatelli was a well-known portrait painter in Rome. Mrs. Rogers said his subjects included the daughter of the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and members of the Italian aristocracy.
The couple decided to travel to Southeast Asia, after Mr. Locatelli received an invitation from a college official in Jakarta to visit the island and exhibit his work.
"It was a tremendous invitation," Mrs. Rogers said. "Those are fantastic places for painters to paint."
The Locatellis spent two years in Jakarta and Bali, where Mr. Locatelli painted street scenes, rice harvests, traditional Balinese dancers and other local scenes.
After successful art exhibitions in the islands, the Locatellis traveled to Japan, China and then to the Philippines, where they established a studio in 1941.
Upon their arrival in Manila, the Locatellis were welcomed into the social circles of the American military community. In her book, Mrs. Rogers recalls meeting Gen. Douglas MacArthur at a reception at the U.S. Army Country Club.
"As he looked straight at me, I felt that he completely controlled and had perfect command of every movement. . . . He seemed to possess all that was excellent in the American people."
The Locatellis' idyllic life abroad ended with the beginning of World War II and the Japanese invasion of Manila. The Japanese military was suspicious of the Locatellis' friendship with the American Army officials in Manila, and Mrs. Rogers writes that she and her husband were beaten by Japanese officers.
By 1943 the Locatellis had lived for two years in Manila under the occupation of the Japanese. Weary of life under siege, Mrs. Rogers said that Mr. Locatelli decided to escape the difficulties of daily life for an afternoon by going on a hunting trip. After he left on his excursion, Mrs. Rogers never saw her husband again.
Before leaving Manila in 1946, Mrs. Rogers endured several interrogations by the Japanese military about the disappearance her husband and survived the U.S. attack of the Philippines in 1945. However, nearly all of her husband's paintings were destroyed.
Shortly before she left Manila, Mrs. Rogers received word from U.S. Army officials that an investigation had revealed that Mr. Locatelli had joined American guerrilla fighters in the mountains and was classified as missing in action.
With the help of her American military friends, Mrs. Rogers came to the United States. She lived in California briefly, and in 1946 moved to Baltimore. She painted portraits in Baltimore and taught art for two years at the College of Notre Dame.
In 1950 Mrs. Rogers married Raymond Rogers, who died last year, and the couple moved to a New Windsor farm in 1960. She taught art at St. Johns' Catholic School for 15 years, retiring in 1975.
"It's just like a little paradise," Mrs. Rogers said of her farm. "When I first saw it, it reminded me of my place in Bali."