Talk fifty two.
Washington D.C., 05thApril
- Seth’s been sending e-mails every day. He says that he misses us and is closely following our journey on the blog.
- I wonder if he’ll be able to come to Europe.
- Such a trip is a life dream for Asians but they realize that not all dreams come true. Seth is realistic and he doesn’t think that he can’t leave without Europe.
- But he has us as friends there and he’d love to see Europe in our company.
- I do not blame him! And you, for example, would like to go into space?
- Right there! Nothing else but go into space! Without going there, however, I enjoyed looking at some of those space flying objects. Although Aviation and Space Museum in Washington[6] disappointed me a little.
- What did you expect? That they would allow you to fly those objects?
- No, but I expected to be allowed to get onto or into them and see them from inside. For example, the famous space shuttle Discovery.
- This is not Disneyland! As for me, Washington charmed me with its beautiful spring.
- How long have you known Renata? This is another Polish lady whom I met in the U.S. and who enjoyed enormous success in this country.
- I believe that Renata would have been successful anywhere in the world. We’ve known each other since elementary school. The oldest people can’t remember when it was.
- A Polish woman, a medical doctor in the American army? How come?
- She’s known to be the only woman not born in America who reached the rank of a colonel and a position of Director of the Institute of Pathology of the U.S. Armed Forces.
- At some point, the army thanked her…
- Age has its own rights and restrictions. Well, the young came into the game and took her position. Renata is now still working professionally for the army in various projects on cancer.
- Over the years since her leaving Poland, have you been in close contact?
- Not regularly. Renata left Poland in 1968. For the first time we saw each other in New York in 1976. Then there was a long break, as the army didn’t approve of the contacts with anyone from communist countries. Since 1990 I’ve been in the U.S. several times and thanks to Renata and her husband John I saw a lot of places. I visited San Antonio in Texas, then Memphis in Tennessee where we saw Graceland - the Elvis Presley’s estate. Eventually, I got to know Washington, D.C. and the surrounding states. Renata and I’d also see each other in Poland when she came to class reunions. Always with her husband - John.
- Exactly. John, an American. And how unusual!
- Unusual? No, not really. Just a fantastic guy! A super- husband. A sensational master of the house leading the household with great skill and ability. Renata is not an artist in the kitchen…
- I would say that the kitchen is not her habitat.
- When she used to live in Szczecin, she decided to learn how to peel potatoes. When the housekeeper tried to teach her, during the first potato being peeled, the phone rang and Renata left the the kitchen.
- It seems that she never came back. Renata’s job was to earn money and John’s was to drive, get the supplies, cook and …
- … to be an excellent companion in all their activities of cultural consumption. The theatre, opera, art exhibitions and concerts - all "consumed" not only in the U.S. but also in Europe where Renata was stationed with "her" army in Frankfurt/Main.
- For me, John was, above all, an extremely cordial and welcoming host. His famous breakfasts with pancakes I’ll remember for my lifetime.
- And the mussels or clams, a large pot of those for everyone?
- It cost me a little not to show some disgust.
- You politely ate them all up! Besides, he served us many more wonderful meals.
- It was difficult to accept John’s passing away.
- In 2009. We couldn’t be at the funeral. Six months later I went to visit Renata to stay with her and Terenia who flew in from California, and visited the tomb of John’s at the military cemetery in Arlington[7].
- It's been a few years now and Renata had to adapt to new conditions, new style of functioning. In the kitchen including.
- And like most widows she’s doing very well. Nevertheless, John is still strongly missed.
- She invited us and a lot of her friends for this year's Easter holidays.
- Which means today is a shopping day and the shopping means driving to several stores of which the most important one is the Polish food shop Kiełbasa Factory[8]. There is no Polish foodstuff that couldn’t be found there to buy!
- You came with the idea of roasting a goose…
- …and we had to find the Amish[9] food store. The community which lives in the 1800s conditions. Out of their own choice, of course.
- You have nobody in Poland anymore for whom to roast a goose.
- Why not? Because my former friends who had consumed some geese, will not come to see me anymore? I’m going to roast one for you and myself , so that you could eat it all!
- I like neither goose or turkey or any other fancy quirks. Don’t you miss all those people around you? That buzz, dizziness, noisy meetings, trips, events, drinking, fun? Being the center of attention?
- I wonder what else you could come up with? Apparently all of that in some way annoyed you.
- No, it didn’t annoy me. I still think being with me you had lost something, something had changed in your life, something that used to have a lot sense.
- A nonsense, maybe. If I’d lost anything, as you put it, it has been rewarded by living with you.
- What a boredom!
- I learned to like the boredom and our family life
[1] Dulles Air Space Museum
[2] Graceland Memphis
[3] Arlington
[4] Kielbasa Factory Rockville
[5] Amish people
[6] Dulles Air Space Museum
[7] Arlington
[8] Kielbasa Factory Rockville
[9] Amish people
