Chapter 9 Version 2
1902
Immigrants can be in a precarious position. They have one
foot rooted in the old country and the other foot trying to get onto solid
ground in the new country. In assuming this straddle position for their body
and their mind, they are constantly out of balance – always shifting to stay
upright with family, friends, employers and societies pulling at their legs.
Sometimes the forces are a positive influence. Sometimes the forces are at odds
with maintaining that stability that is needed in the long run.
“Helena, you have grown up!” exclaimed Helena’s mother
Franciszka who was keenly aware that she had missed two years of her daughter’s
life. Helena had grown up from a girl of fifteen when she left Galicia to a
woman of seventeen with two years of experience working in the mill in Adams. For
now, there was just an overwhelming desire to hug her daughter and reestablish
that mother/daughter relationship that suffers when contact is lost for a long
period of time and over such a long distance.
“Mary is taking care of the farm in Niewodna while I am
traveling and she says “hi!” and that she misses you very much” said Franciszka
inserting another reason in Helena’s mind for returning to Galicia. “I traveled
on the Kronprinz Wilhelm, the sister ship of the ship you came over on, and
come through Bremen the same as you so you already know the details of my ocean
crossing. The winters get colder and the summers get hotter the older you get.
How do you like America? Are you ready to come home?” she said hopefully in the
please make mama happy tone of voice Helena had grown up with.
“Well mama,” Helena countered in her best adult voice , “I
am a good weaver. I also like being here with Josefa and Anna. But I get to see
them less now that they both were married three months ago. Anna was married by
the Polish priest and Josefa was married by the Irish priest.”
Franciszka stayed until Josefa had her first child. It was a
difficult birth and the family story was that Josefa was not expected to
survive after giving birth to her first child, Joseph. But Josefa did survive
and went on to have twelve more children in America with her husband John
Wojnar. In 1905, twins were born named Helena and Marie in Adams. Son Edwin was
born in 1924.
In 1972, sister Helen – one of the twins – went to England
to visit relatives. “While you are in Europe, you should go see your brother
Joseph in Poland because you are so close to Poland” said Helen’s relatives.
Helen protested “But Poland is behind the Iron Curtain. I can’t go there!”.
“Yes you can. Just go to Germany and get on a train to Poland and we can let
relatives in Poland know that you are coming” said Helen’s relatives. So Helen
boarded the train for Poland and met her older brother – the “baby” Joseph -
who was now about 70 years old and still living on his grandmother Franiszka’s
farm in Niewodna. Joseph never visited America. Helen was the only sibling he
would ever meet.
“So what is keeping you here in America, Helena?” Franciszka
asked with some premonition of the answer.
“Well mama, children here get to go to school and learn to
read and write and do arithmetic. And I met a boy named Wojciech, Albert in
English, who is also a very good weaver in the cotton mill. He is from
Kambornia near Krosno in Galicia.” Said Helena as she saw that Franciszka was
realizing that she might be losing this daughter to America too.
“Did you meet his parents?” Franciszka asked hoping to find
another reason that Helena should come home.
“He is an orphan who was brought up by his sister Anna” Helena
replied.
“Is his sister Anna in America too?”
“No, she is in Galicia but his sister Tekla is over here.”
“What did you say his name was?” asked Franciszka feeling
her daughter being pulled closer to America.
“Wojciech Zywar”
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