A Tribute To My Mother and Grandmother

On February 10th, 1939 the Russian NKVD invaded my grandmother Anna's farm in Antosia, Poland. And so began a horrific journey by train, with my mother Rozalia in tow, to Siberia.

My mother found herself in a gulag in Archangelsk, while my grandmother was taken further north to the coldest part of the Arctic Circle. My mother was one of 500 thousand human beings who survived out of the original 1.7 million deported-- but she never saw my grandmother or homeland again...

This is my tribute.

By the Light of the Candle

A cold, frosty window against the darkness of the night
A lonely candle burns with a small flickering light
A small girl watches the flame with curious eyes
Mother, you lit this candle, can you tell me why?

I lit the candle to remember the town I knew
people I lived with when I was as little as you
This is for my mother who never had the chance to see
her homeland again and a new world across the sea.

We lived in a time when our Polish freedoms were taken
On a cold winter night, all humanity forsaken.
I only knew them from the stories that were told
as they struggled to survive with their hunger in the bitter cold.

We never had the chance to get back what we knew
our lives were destroyed and there was nothing we could do
our last steps were taken as we struggled to return
And I sit with my so many memories as the candle I lit burns.

I miss their warm hugs that they could have given me
If I had been given just another chance to see
But in my heart I feel all their love stream through
And from my heart I'll try to give Babcia to you.

She was a warrior of faith who loved her land
Her fate was unnecessary and hard to understand
She was proud and gentle and strong
Trapped in a world where everything went wrong.

When each February comes, please remember this light
And the story I told you about those people tonight
May the candle burn bright and the memories survive,
Of Babcia, the Siberaki, as if they're alive.

*Kindly light a candle in memory of the deported Siberaki. Thank you to Nusia Goldbach and Mark Karaczun, who share my new-found family tree in what was once Kolonia Antos. And to Hanna Kaczanowska 2007.