We all have some kind of love story; whether it was our
first love, the one that broke our heart or the one that we are with and can’t
imagine our life without. Whether it’s painful, short, long or beautiful we all
have some kind of story to tell.
With Valentine’s day approaching is hard not to think about
love….well everything is screaming at you LOVE! It sometimes feels like we are
being force-fed LOVE, but it is easy to
see why……..love is amazing!!
I want to tell you the most amazing love story I know. The story of my Great- Grandparents……..
My great-grandma Janina was the only child of wealthy aristocrat,
who owned a beautiful manor house and large land on the outskirts of Warsaw,
Poland. Her Mother died when she was just a little girl. On her death bed she
asked her sister to look after Janina. Few months later her father married his
late wife’s sister.
My great-grandpa
Dominic was a very charismatic and handsome stable boy at the manor house. From
poor background, large and loving family.
I know what you must
think….typical story of rich and poor. Well in a way you are right, but please
read on……..As is was customary in those days; Janina’s husband was already
chosen for her, a man she did not care for and strongly refused to be betrothed
to him. She was far too taken with
Dominic to care for any other man.
She used to make any excuse to go to the stables to see and
talk to Dominic; he brought wild flowers for her from the nearby fields. They
were spending more and more time together a fact that did not go unnoticed by
my great-great-grandfather. One day he
caught them kissing and it all came to an end. Dominic was thrown out and
Janina forbidden to ever see him again, but wild horses cannot keep two lovers
away, and they met up in secret, sneaking kisses and love poems.
As the months went by their love grew stronger and just
seeing each other now and then was not enough. Janina new that if her father
ever find out about their secret meet ups it would be the end of her, so they
decided to run away. She left a letter
to her father pleading to understand and accept with address of Dominic’s
family where she would be staying and with a heavy heart and little suitcase
she left her home never to return.
Janina waited with hope for her father to change his mind,
wrote letters to him pleading tirelessly, but the only letter she ever received
from him was to state she was no longer his daughter, forbidden to ever enter
his home and had no claim to his fortune. Still she kept writing and hoping.
In time they married, had a daughter Balbina, three years
later another Jozefa (my grandma) and four more children followed. They were
very happy together, Dominic kept bringing wild flowers, they were totally
devoted to each other. Money was very tight, Janina home schooled their and neighbours children to earn money, while Dominic work anywhere he could.
Janina gave birth to one more child, little girl who died a
year later. My grandma and her sisters always described their sister as ‘The
Little Angel of Death’ as she was
alabaster white, jet black hair, black eyes and never cried. Maybe a tragic
omen of the bad times to come, as morbid as it sounds, you do have to take into account how
superstitious people were in those days.
Their happy home was shattered with the start of Second
World War, which had a devastating effect on Warsaw. Janina tried one more time
to plead to her father, but still got the same answer. Eventually her father’s
house and land was taken over by German soldiers, where they were staying and
destroying everything in sight.
Janina, Dominic and their 6 children were living in one bedroom
apartment, Dominic trying to fight against the Germans with the underground
army. He was captured twice and tortured horrendously. First as a warning, or so my grandmother believed, her little brother
Bolek ran after the car shouting ‘please give back my dad’. When Dominic was
released he was unrecognisable, beaten black and blue with broken legs, arms
and ribs. The second time he was captured because someone snitch him up for hiding guns
for the Polish resistance, so badly beaten
he had no skin on his back, his wounds so deep you could see the bone. He
couldn’t move for months, but he recovered and his fighting spirit never faded.
While Dominic was recovering Janina received news of her father’s and stepmother’s
death, both executed by Nazis.
With situation in Warsaw critical they decided to pack up
what was left of their belongings and relocate somewhere safer, they headed
north. Just as the war ended they settled in a little village Zagorze,
belonging to the island Wolin and there they started rebuilding their lives and
war destroyed Poland.
5 years later during a bitter winter, Dominic was coming
back from work along the Szczecinski Lagoon part of the river Dziwna, when he
saw a man drowning, he jumped in to save the man and although he managed to
save him, he got trapped under ice and
drowned, he was only 49.
My great –grandfather survived the death of his child, the
war, two captures by the Nazis, fighting with the underground army, and wrath
of an angry father. He was an amazing father and loving husband, always helping
anyone who was in need and that is just the way he died, helping someone. He was the man whose spirit could never be
broken. My great-grandfather is my hero.
My great-grandmother remained devoted to him, never
remarried, never even kissed another man until the day she died at the age of
91. She has given up everything, her wealth, privilege, father and family for
the man she loved. In return he gave her his undivided love, 6 beautiful
children and treasured memories. She was an amazingly determined and strong
woman.
Unfortunately I do not have a picture of my
great-grandparents, but here’s a picture of my grandma Jozefa and granddad
Stanislaw on their wedding day. They got married 3 years after my
Great-granddad passed away.
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