They continued by train to San Francisco. There they got a small apartment. Lila's father worked in the cousin's cooperage. Her mother found employment as a seamstress in a doll factory.

Again, Lilian was on her own. "Books were my best friends. They were also almost my only friends."

She went to school and learned American English quickly and without an accent because she listened to the radio a lot. She kept a diary and discovered her joy and talent for writing.