Someone asked me how this all started so here's the story......
We lived for the last 11 years in Itasca, Illinois. Both my wife and I worked for the same market research company in Chicago called Synovate. I worked as a progammer and she as a mail clerk. The plan started in 2005 when retirement was 2 years away and we were looking at options of where we could afford to live on only our SS checks. We thought about buying a small house in some little town in southern Illinoisbut decided it would be boring with little to do. My wife suggested Poland because at that time our money would be worth much more and houses cheaper to buy. That was before Poland joining the EU was really taking effect. Of course it's different now. Prices here are almost like the U.S. except housing prices here continue to go up while in the U.S. the are dropping. We had been to Poland in 2003 and 2004 for a month each time to meet relatives I never knew I had. Both of my grandparents were from Poland but my mother, aunts and uncles never said a word about Polish relatives. When my mother died in In 1999 I decided I would start putting all of my pictures and CD's with names and places for my son to have after I'm gone. I didn't know some of the people in pictures and my curiosity drove me to find out who they were. I had one aunt who was a nun, Sister Redempta, passed away in 1977. I wrote to the mother house of her order and asked them to send me any papers she had left behing. In the packet I recieved was a letter from an address in Poland from the 1950's. I knew that the writer must be dead by now but I wrote a letter and sent copies of old pictures to the address hoping some family member might still be at that house. I waited and waited and one day when I came home from work there was a blue envelope in the mailbox from Poland. What a thrill!! At that time I couldn't read Polish so on Saturday I went to the Polish Museum in Chicago to find someone who could read it to me. As it turned out, it was from a daughter of my grandfathers sister left behind in Poland with my great grandmother. My great grandfather came to America with his sons and oldest daughter to avoid conscription of his sons into the Russian army, occupiers of their part of Poland at that time. My great grandmother and youngest daughter were to join them but by greatgrandfather died before he could save enough money to come over so they remained in Poland and that's how the family started in Poland. I wrote back immediately and thus began our mail correspondence. This cousin, Kazia, told other member about the letter and one day about 5 months later I recieved an letter, from a cousin Małgorzata, in English. She gave me her email address and we began corresponding frequently and she told me a lot about my family there. Then we switched to Instant Messenger and everyday we would talk for and hour or two through that media. After a year I decided I had to go to Poland to meet everyone. In 2003 we made the first trip and it was incredible. When the month was over and we were sitting in plane at Poznań airport I actually tears in my eyes because I had to leave. It was a strange feeling. i love America but I felt i was returning to a strange land now and didn't want to leave. When my wife saw my eyes she said not to worry, wewould return the next year and we did. For me, the decision to move to Poland was not difficult. I have many relatives in the States but we now live all over and so far apart. I miss the young days when all of my uncles, aunts and cousins were in the same town and we always saw each other. In Poland it may not be the same town but the distances are much much shorter. family still has more meaning here. As for speaking Polish, I hadn't spoken Polish since I was 8 years old but we bought some books and started to learn. For the last year and a half we studied with a private teacher in Chicago from Lublin. I can communicate somewhat better now but still have a long way to go. It's a little more difficult for my wife who has a Austrian/German background. We have enrolled at Mickiewicz University here in Poznań to take their Polish for Foreigners course, 3 -2 hour lessons per week for the school year beginning in October. There will be ten people in a class and it's not far from where we live. Plus, everyday we have to speak Polish now so I think we will learn much faster. OK, that's my story up to this point. I hope this is what you wanted to know. David
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
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2 comments:
I picked up on your blog when it was listed on Gen Dobry, which I read from time to time. I checked it out and was intrigued! I decided to stay and read your entire blog, from the original post to the most current, which at the time was your count down to the actual day you would leave the US. I actually found myself thinking about you and your wife, and wondering how you were doing on your adventure wqhen you were in transition and not on the Internet! I check in daily for my Polish "fix"! I think what you are doing is amazing! it is probably a dream lot of people have, to do something so out of the ordinary, but few ever would actually do it. I discovered my Polish family a few years ago. Similar story, nothing short of a miracle. Here's my nutshell- my father immigrated to the USA from northeastern Poland in 1927 at the age of 20. He died at age 54, when I was just 5. Did not remember him much at all, but my Mom told me all about him, all the time. After she passed away in 1999 I began to want to know more about him. Sent off an e mail to the Civil Records in Bialystok, who forwarded my letter to the local Civil Records Dept in Nowe Piekuty. The office worker in that office asked the local mailman if he know of any one with my father's last name. He hand delivered my letter to who turned out to be my first cousin- my father's sister's daughter, his niece. She wrote to me- in Polish. In her letter she included a picture of me, as a child that my father must have given her when he went back to Poland in 1960, 2 years before he died suddenly. She also sent me a letter my father wrote to her, dated 1961, about 7 months before he died! She kept those things all these years, over 40 years! I did not speak Polish, but when then 9 year old daughter heard of my excitement, she told me her friend had a babysitter who she thought was from Poland. I met this girl, Kasia, and she was able to translate the letter for me! In the meantime, my cousin Czeslawa came to the US to visit her daughter who was living in New Jersey that summer of 2001. My husband and I were planning a vacation up north anyway, and we planned to meet my new family. We had a wonderful, tearful meeting. She invited me to come to Poland as she still lives on the same farmland that my father was born on and lived on until he came to the US in 1927! In 2005 we decided to celebrate our 25th anniversary with a trip to Poland. We spent about 5 days on the farm with Czeslawa and then went onto our 2 week tour throughout the rest of Poland. So reading your blog has kept me connected to Poland through you now, as my letters to Czeslawa have become less and less now that Kasia, the Polish girl went back to Poland and I have no one to translate for me. I have been checking in to see your progress and today when I read your story it seemed somewhat similar to mine and I again, found myself dreaming... is what you are not doing something my husband and I would ever think of...I am sure i am not so brave, but perhapos living there for 6 months or so. ( I do not speak Polish at all!) You are sort of the trailblazing pioneers! I am happy you are so willing to document your experience for all wo are interested to see. Continued health, wealth and happiness in your new hoomeland! I will continue to check in with you! Love seeing the pictures of your enighborhood, as it reminds me of the pristine streets there! PS_ LOVED Pyzy! Please, plese, please, could you post the recipe in English! My cousin Czeslawa and her daughter in law Malgosis made it for us and we LOVED it! Thanks!
Joanne,
My wife and I thank you for your comment. Please feel free to email us anytime at piekar66@hotmail.com.
We must confess we bought the pyzy already made by somemone locally and only steamed it to make it ready to eat.
Our stories are similar as I am sure many others. It was a big challenge to do what we have done, expecially since we have children and grand children in America but we felt it was time to live our life for ourselves. Everyday is a new challenge, whether it's to mail a post from the post office or just take a bus from point a to point b. It is exciting also to hear all of the comments from people who read our blog, encouragement is great. At times we need it. We don't know what the future will hold for us, we hope life in Poland, healthy and happy.
Write to us at our email address and I will answer.
David
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