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Sons and Fathers: Going Back to Poland |
| Section: MODERN THOUGHT / ESSAYS |
| Author: Philip Gerard |
| Publication: The world & I online |
| Issue Date: 6/1/1991 |
| Size: 6,545 Words, 38,553 Characters |
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I stand beside my bag at the curb of No. 24, Ulica Pederewskiego, in Szczytno, Poland, waiting to meet a family I have never known, who speak a language I do not speak, and who do not know for sure I am coming. Nevertheless, they are my family, and I've come to reclaim them.
My guide--a young man I met on the train from Warsaw--has led me here. He doesn't speak English, but I've shown him a letter of introduction from my father explaining, in Polish, that I am looking for his neighbor, Helena Szablinska.
Now he approaches the door of the white stucco house, open to the summer breeze, and calls inside. A pretty teenaged girl in designer jeans appears--cousin Kasia, the granddaughter of my grandfather's brother's daughter, whom I recognize from a black-and-white photo--and raises ...
. . .
...s--Szczytno linens, bottles of vodka and piwo--souvenirs of our time together.
All the old airport security checks are still in place, but I'm waved on through. Past the customs gate, I turn for a last glimpse of my new family. My grandfather left them eighty-odd years ago and never returned. I've promised to return. Sometimes it's good to go back, good to remember where you come from. vbcrlf
(812 of 38,553 characters)
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