I was born in Novo Radzekowo ( that is new Radzekowo, not Radzekowo itself) by the Wistwa (which on English maps is called the Vistula) on April 28, 1927.   I was born at sunrise, because I remember as soon as I was born, I opened my eyes and saw the bright red sun.  I knew then that I was special.  I would rather have been only happy, but I would not change my life because that is the path God made for me.

    I was born on a small farm about 10 kilometers outside of town, in my mother's bedroom as were most Poles of my generation .  I was her fourth and last child.  As far as I know, my birth was very ordinary, except for the fact that it was mine..

        My mother was not.  She was a very strong woman whose spirit was unbowed by many heartaches and tragedies.  She was born Veronika Buks on January 12, 1892 in a small village  just outside Warsaw.  Buks is an old and common peasant name which means "of the Beech trees" .  It was the name of the main family in James A Michener's book called simply "Poland".
She was born in the Kingdom of Poland which at that time was a Russian province, and not the independent country which we now call Poland, since between the Napoleonic Wars and World War I there was no country of Poland.  There was still a Polish people, language and culture, but there was no independent country of Poland.  There was very much a Polish nationalistic movement, which is very fully explained in Mitchener's book.
I don't think my mother was very aware of politics, as the Russians at that time under the czars did not give much education to women, much less subject Polish peasant women.   She was a very intelligent woman, but her intellect was not directed towards the outside world, it was instead as was proper for the time, aimed at the development of her family - her husband, her children and her home. 

    One of the land reforms that the Russian masters did under their pan-Slavic program was to give each Polish person 8 acres of land.   Veronica received her 8 acres at the same time as everyone else.   Stanislaus Kolinski originally married my aunt Kristine, my mother's sister.  At some point in their marriage, Kristine died.  I heard it was in childbirth, but I am not sure.   In any event Stan had no children.  Now Stanislaus had 16 acres of land, his 8 and Kristine's 8 as well.

    Although it was not common at that time, when my mother was 16 she was married to Stanislaus Kolinski - a marriage that was partially arranged and partially based on attraction, for Stan was a tall robust man who literally bounced when he did the polka and Veronika was a well endowed miss with piercing blue eyes and strong cheekbones, with a mind and body to match.  The young couple had a good start, because the marriage started with 24 acres of land.  This is small by the standards of modern farms, but in turn-of-the century  Poland, 24 acres was a substantial farm for a peasant couple.   

    They had two sons together.  Chester was born in August of 1910, and Jan was born in the early  winter of 1913.   Technically, these my brothers, were born in Russia.  By all accounts this was a happy and prosperous marriage.  Stan was an experienced and hard-working farmer, and Veronika was a diligent and efficient home-maker.

    Their happiness was destroyed early in the fall of 1914  when Stanislaus died.  The story my mother told was that he went into town and had an accident, but I think that he was probably involved in the war somehow, and met his end that way.

   I often wonder what my mother was thinking in the fall of 1914.  A recent widow with little education, 2 small children to care for, a farm to tend and the Great War not far away.  She did not panic, for she had great common sense, 24 acres of land and a host of relatives close by.  It was some of these relatives who now went to work to find the brave young widow another husband.   They did not work fast, for their world was in turmoil.  The German invaders had occupied all of Poland and were solidly entrenched in what is now Western Russia.  Germany could not feed herself, and relied on the Polish crops to feed her people, although they did not think of the Polish people as Poles, but as Russian subjects and therefore the enemy. 

    It is not that the German invaders were cruel, but they were harsh.   They were also harsh upon themselves, both soldiers and civilians.  Also, they thought of much of Poland as German territory, because it had been Prussian for over a hundred years.  Through this greatest of turmoils, my mother carried on with the help of some of her kinsmen, and her two small boys.

    And then the matchmakers found my father, Josef Zakrzewski.

    By this time my father was already a widower with four sons and a daughter.  He was also an experienced and competent farmer who had managed to add a little to the meagre holdings that he started with.  By all accounts he was a well respected and honorable man who was a very eligible batchelor, although getting very close to middle age.  One always wonders in cases like this, where a widow and a widower get together, how much is loneliness, how much is habit, how much is economic convenience and how much is love.  What I saw, although in later years, was a man and a woman who were very happy with each other and their little new family.  There are no details available about their marriage, we can only assume that it was done in the traditional Polish way, although perhaps a little subdued because of the times.  It wasn't much later that Veronika discovered she was to become a mother again.

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