Olga's history.......HERSTORY

Pavlokoma ........a quaint village with rolling hills of green.........
houses scattered around, gardens green....wonderful....
everything green with dots of colour here and there......
quiet not much going on ......
except cows and chickens roaming around freely
it was like that when we where visiting last June/08
Henry, Olga and I......

I thought ......
It was like that in 1930 when Olga was born I'm sure
it was April 20Th a bit cooler just starting to pop green and bits of other colour.
The snow all gone and the warm sun is out warming the earth getting ready for
the coming season......

Work in progress

My son Joseph came home from work the other day and asked how the story was coming...
I told him I had called Baba (Olga, grandmother in Ukrainian) to get more details.

I explained that I felt conflicted about the listening to the horror of what happened to my family and what I'm studying now...

I've been listening to an audio version of the wisdom of the TAO TE CHING as translated by
Dr. Wayne Dyer for eight months now and love listening to his soothing voice and explanation of each verse...

I'm a seeker of peace is what I'm finding out about myself...even the name my mother chose for me calls me to choose peace.....
Irene is a name derived from the Greek word εἰρήνη, "peace".
Olga called me Myrka when I was younger, we had too many cousins Irene
( or Irka, Irena in Ukrainian)
I like Myrka and use it as my online persona.

I was telling him that I was having a hard time putting what Baba has told me into a story form, his suggestion was to tell the story the way I was telling him just as she is telling me.

Well son I said... it's easier said than done...I'm not a writer, but forgot that I know how to tell a good story in person so I'm told..

Hmmm I thought .....I bought a device that takes dictation last year for such a purpose why not use it........Joseph laughed there you go Mom.....
Yes my son is full of insight.........
Joe noticed they spelled his name wrong on his name tag at the new job (yes he let's me call him that).... Joesph is how they spelled it, I had to look twice, yes it is spelled wrong...
see the slight difference
he is named after my dad, who spelled his name Jozef, I like that spelling...but at the time of Josephs birth I was not aware of the other spelling......

Jason my older son is coming back today from his short visit with friends he met in Manitoba..
he has been visiting us for a couple of months now, but that's another story.....
this is a small place we live in, so the Talking to my computer will wait until I'm alone, it is sensitive to noise...and I still a bit ...hmmm whats the word ...shy talking with my computer......
all though I do talk to my car LOL....
I thought....MAYBE I should take the computer for a drive : )

DNA

Poland

I thought I was truly blessed ; when my older brother Henry offered to take me along on a trip to Poland he had planned with my mother last June 2008.

Thank you Henry.....

I will never be able to tell you enough, how much I really enjoyed the trip....I am Grateful for getting to know you better......

even with those interesting moments that we had and maybe share...... a little later on in the story of Olga...

I thought wow I will get to see where I come from see the village I was born in...meet some of the family......
I thought with the plans that Henry made, driving from Berlin see all the important stops...
where we were born...Pavlokoma......the Monument, it would help Olga heal.....

So again I ask where does the story start...I can tell you about what I found on the internet but ...

I thought If they want to know about the history of Poland and the Ukraine it's easy to find....

I thought this is the story of Olga my mother.......

History

I thought when I was younger that I was a history buff...loved learning about the past....

funny that I was never really interested in my own history, until now...
trying to tell Olga's story led to research on the internet.......WOW amazing things one can find here in cyber space...and still amazing, that there is still controversy surrounding the events that happened in the history between Poland and the Ukraine...

it goes deep this pain ......

I thought do I know enough of the details of what happened to Olga?
I heard over and over for over 40 years but do I remember it all ....

I need to call to expand on the details of what I remember hearing from Olga...March is a hard time for her, it seems that a lot of her loved ones passed on in this month not just on that day.
but in other years and other countries; I thought maybe the reason for this is so the pain is contained in just one month to grieve all at once...

New church, homes,.Life, history.......

Olga at the Monument

2008 Olga meets with another survivor...he is the keeper of the Monument, and lives in what is the new village...all rebuilt
The only evidence of what happened is this beautiful Memorial Park...

Storks at the Monument

Birth...Death...Rebirth

Another account of the days....

CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO ENLARGE

"Pavlokoma"

I thought ....I heard Olga's story all my life ...have I become indifferent to it....
I thought can I remember what she told me...it never was a story from start to finish, just memories here and there...
do I know all of the parts and details...
should I have listened better, did I really hear the pain....

I thought....if one is to heal the pain should we not let go of those details of the horror that took place...

Forgive....let Go.....
I thought ....wow the deeper I dig on the internet the more I find, another piece of the puzzle from another source...
here is what I found:

"Pavlokoma"

The masonry tserkva(church) in Pavlokoma no longer exists. It was taken apart by Polish residents who did not want to be reminded of the evil deed they perpetrated on the Ukrainian population.

On March 3, 1945, Polish inhabitants of Pavlokoma and surrounding villages encircled Pavlokoma and herded all inhabitants of Ukrainian descent into the tserkva, then systematically murdered all males above the age of four and some women, dumping their bodies into a prepared grave in the cemetery.
Only 40 women and children remained and these were driven out of the village in the clothes they wore.

Olga, her mother and her niece and nephew where among them....so on this day they started their journey to Recz......