Remembering When, Part Nine

Sometimes, I get too lazy to write because of—among other issues—post-baclofen-pump-surgery muscle pain (as I have discussed as part of the reason for my delay in finishing this memoir) and schoolwork (At this point, as I have been told, I will be the first of Grandma's and Pop-Pop's grandchildren to graduate from college—and I expect, or at least hope, to graduate on December 20, 2013.). So, let me take one more detour. However, let me detour on the way back to Great-Granddad Czarnecki's and Great-Grandma Czarnecki's story by giving more background about it—and while some of this background giving maybe be background regiving, it will nonetheless help you to understand the next part of the story.

 I honestly grew up even being handed that we were related to Stefan Czarniecki and that Great-Grandma Czarnecki was Lithuanian (she was a the daughter of Polish-Slovakian-Hungarian Anusim Mihaly Trudnyak [the son of Mihaly Trudnyak, Sr. and Maria Nagyova Trudnyakova] and Anna Munkova Trudnyakova [the daughter of Samuel and Rosalia Korschova Munka])! I had no clue what the real story was! I was told that Great-Granddad 

1. Came here alone (and not when he was two and escaping the pogroms as an Anusi with his Anusit mother, part of the Andrulevicus [Andrulewicz, etc.] and Morgovich [Morgiewicz, etc.] families. They came here to join his dad, who had already come here once illegally. Of course, they lived as Anusim to avoid Anti Semitism in America; and Northeastern Pennsylvania was somehow the place to do so. Of course, his cousin Jacob Androlowicz did identify as a Jewish war veteran, and he was buried in a Catholic cemetery—the Andrulevicuses were a mix of open Jews and Anusim, Non-Messianic and Messianic Jews.).
2. Married Mary Trudnak (who was actually named for her grandmother—as my aunt Mary was for her grandmothers—and not for Mary the mother of Jesus! Long story short, we have Sephardic heritage concerned somewhere; or at least we adopted a mix of Ashkenazi and Sephardi minhagim—and Grandma did name "Mary Joan" for her mother [Mary Rusnak Gaydos, whose paternal grandma was Marysia Novakova Rusznakova] and herself [Joan Gaydos Czarnecki]—and we used "Maria" and "Marysia" as variants of "Maryam". In fact, Aunt Mary was honestly the first Mary on the Czernecki/Chernetski/Czarnecki side.].)
3. Served in Korea (which he never did or could).
4. Died of Black Lung (instead of his newspaper-worthy suicide).

He did work in the coal mines, to be fair, but the Black Lung wasn't what killed him. Of course, I didn't question or research until I was much older. The Czernecki side is the side on which I'm focusing on for the memoir, meanwhile—and I've gotten relatives angry over finding all this out and talking about this, but (as Great-Grandma told Aunt Mary) I want to talk about it (and may she rest in peace—and I myself remember her as a loving, kind, frail woman—I only knew why she was so frail after she died and I talked to Aunt Mary and others—Great-Granddad and others did not treat her well for at least 73 years [She applied for a marriage license on May 10, 1934—she never got it signed. I have no clue how her parents were, but her two brothers' divorces and how she was attracted to Great-Granddad may indicate something—I can't say, though. A cousin said that they identified as Slovakian Catholics, though—they seemed okay enough, though, from what I can tell. At least they raised Great-Grandma well—Mom even recalls that, when she knew her, she had the Old Country charm—even though she was born in Ashley, Pennsylvania! And, as I said, she was a loving, kind, frail woman—she even loved me and Dad's cousin Jamie, and the disabled aren't looked upon too well in our family.).

By the way, I can say that Great-Grandma's passing and what it brought about was what really got me questioning and researching, now that I think about it.