Wednesday, August 20, 2008

More...

I ended the last post rather quickly, as I was just aabout out of time and should actually stop writing now. I have to get back home and finish packing and head off to the station.

But there are a couple of details I realized I should mention before I lose track of them. First, I just wanted to describe the feeling of holding the ledger books and finding my relative's names. I think it effected me more strongly than finding the graves. First, I didn't know the info existed so it was even more of a surprise. There was also something about reading the names, written in this elegant script, that made these people feel even more real to me. One, Sure, was from the distant past, and someone whose name I never even knew until a month ago. The others were relatives I had personally know, written in a beautiful script, in a place so far away from where and when I had known them.

I also wanted to relate a touching offer that was made to me by Marina, the young student who's been working with us. This afternoon at the cemetery, she said, with one of the volunteers translating, that she would like to keep my great grandparents' graves clean for me, if that was all right, and that she would send me pictures. They may have not gotten along, and divorced ( I sure hope there's a way to find more about that) but they will be cared for together in perpetuity. Well, for a couple of years, anyway.

Time to say goodbye to Czernowitz. I am not ready. Maybe I will come back.

Please check in again. I wll write more from Poland and the Czech Republic.

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