Ivanka N May (Mikasinovic) was born on June 25, 1944, in Vienna, Austria, during the horrors of WWII in Germany. The daughter of Serbian and Croatian parents, as a baby Ivanka survived the infamous Dresden Firebombing of 1945. Unable to return to their native home in old Yugoslavia, they were taken in by dairy farmers in Bavaria for four years. The family was then able to immigrate to Argentina to make a new start.

Ivanka grew up in Buenos Aires and came to the United States in 1965 to live with her aunt in Illinois. Throughout her time living in the US she has worked as a cosmetologist, prayer minister and been a full time caregiver for her husband Dennis May who suffers from a traumatic brain injury. She enjoys cooking, serving, being in nature, gardening, her friends, and especially her little dog Frankie. She hopes that War Soup will be able to bring encouragement, hope, and healing to all readers.