Remembering When, Part Seven

Looking back over what I have written, I see that I have given the impression that (for one matter) I need a ghostwriter and (for another matter) I am not a skilled author as is one such as the late F. Scott Fitzgerald (from whom I borrow the words "Looking...impression that"). Then again, unlike him, I am not making up a story based on life—I am telling a story that I could not have made up in even my wildest dreams. With the truth being told (besides that much of it has already been told), I did not know my own family's story—especially not my Czarnecki side's story.

As I talked about before I detoured over to some of Grandma's story, I was not told the real Czarnecki story at all. Let me go back to the part in which my great-grandparents were getting married, then, to explain exactly how much I did not know. I had no idea that Great-Granddad was a Jew who lived the majority of his life in Sugar Notch, Pennsylvania before he met Sugar Notch native Mary Trudniak—and I did not even know who Miss Trudniak's parents were.

The story that I had been told was this: a Pole named Anthony Czarnecki came over to the United States by himself, married Mary Trudnak, worked in the coal mines, served in the Korean War, had Black Lung, and died when Dad was 12 years old. We were also Lithuanian, presumably through Great-Grandma Czarnecki. Nothing came up about a young Anusi illegal immigrant whose parents told lie after lie on Census, naturalization, and other records to protect their Jewish identity. Nothing came up about Great-Grandma being a Hungarian-Slovakian-Polish Jew or about Great-Granddad being the one who was Lithuanian, let alone actually a Litvaker-Poliysher Yid.

Nothing came up about Great-Granddad falling in love with a believing Jewish woman and getting her pregnant—and nothing came up about the fact that the priest at the Sugar Notch church refused to marry Anthony Czarnecki and Mary Trudniak. Nothing else after that came up.

When any of the family story came up, the story was—again—that Anthony Czarnecki came over to the United States by himself, married Mary Trudnak, worked in the coal mines, served in the Korean War, had Black Lung, and died when Dad was 12 years old. Who knew that, for example, Pop-Pop was not actually Anthony and Mary Trudniak Czarnecki's first child? Who knew that Mary Trudniak Czarnecki had lost that baby two days after he was born? Who knew that Granduncle Tony was named for the lost baby 12 years after he was born? None of us great-grandchildren did—and even Aunt Mary did not know until she talked to Great-Grandma, and one can therefore presume that none of the other grandchildren knew.

As a Fosko cousin would say after he found the marriage license for me, "The return was not filed by the priest or minister, so [there was] no date or minister name to prove marriage took place"—and the Fosko cousin forgot to mention, at least in that specific comment (which is dated June 6, 2008 and is still on my Ancestry.com family tree), that the priest refused to sign the license. If the priest had not refused to sign the license, the date of the marriage and the priest's name would be there.

Also, the license filing—not the wedding—was on May 10, 1934. Furthermore (and you are welcome to do the math as I did), Pop-Pop was not born until May 25, 1936. Since Pop-Pop was conceived around August 25, 1935, two-and-a-quarter years and two weeks passed by to his conception from his parents' marriage-license filing. 

When Great-Grandma gave birth and lost her first child, she was obviously in no mood or capacity to try to conceive another child, let alone Pop-Pop, for at least six weeks—and had she known what the second child whom she would conceive would become, she may have even skipped trying to conceive him (After all, she did not remarry after Great-Granddad died—and continue to keep in mind that Pop-Pop made Granduncle Tony dread him for very-legitimate reasons, because Pop-Pop turned out like his dad and even still gives one an idea of whom Great-Grandma dreaded marrying all over again!).

So (and, as I challenged, you can do the math as I did), the real story was hidden from us great-grandchildren and even the grandchildren because the facts added up to a chillul Yehovah that had a heck of a backstory to it—that is, a Crypto-Jewish illegal immigrant who became a Polish-American Vaticanist married a Jewish Catholic woman who he had impregnated, and the story continued from there.

By the way, you may have noted that I used "Catholic" in the insert to this memoir to refer to both Granduncle Tony's wife and Grandma. You may be thinking, therefore, "You used 'Catholic' for the New Israel Fund project, but you use 'Vaticanist' for the memoir. At the same time, you use 'Catholic' for the memoir. So, what is going on? Maybe you do need a ghostwriter!"

This is a case in which I do not need a ghostwriter, since I actually very deliberately chose my wording to make a point. "Catholic" is appropriate to use for actual Catholics ("Universalists") and for the New Israel Fund project (since New Israel Fund would not understand the nuances regarding "Vaticanist"). "Vaticanist", on the other hand, is appropriate to use for most "Catholics" (including Anusi "Catholics" such as Great-Granddad), since (as I learned from, of all places, Wikipedia) Vatican Hill is why The Vatican is called "The Vatican"—in other words (as one can quickly figure out if he or she at least skims over the Wikipedia entry about Vatican Hill or the one about The Vatican, or some related entry), The Vatican tried to replace the "holy hill" (Mount Zion) with Vatican Hill. Thus, "Vaticanists" are properly called such in light of Scripture verses such as the following (from Psalm 2):

"He that sittethin the heavens shall laugh : the Lord shall have them in derision . Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion."

Also, most "Catholics" do not believe in Biblical inerrancy or infallibility, whereas actual Catholics do—and, thus, are actually part of the Catholic (again, "Universal") Church. By the way, Great-Grandma really was Catholic—as I myself remember her, she was a sweet woman who loved all of her descendants (including me and my dad's cousin Jamie, the son of Pop-Pop's brother Jim—and I have Cerebral Palsy, and Jamie is mentally disabled. She did not have to love me or Jamie, especially since being disabled in our family is being a shame to and within the family—and, as you will want to keep in mind, even the real story of how Jamie became disabled was hidden from me and the other great-grandchildren for years.). If Great-Grandma's love for her family (including, and perhaps especially, me and Jamie) did not show that she was a Catholic (at least if nothing else did), I do not know what did. 

You may have also noted that I used "P'rushi" ("Pharisee") and put terms such as "Rabbinate" in quotes. As with "Vaticanist" for "Catholic", I called "Rabbinate" for what it really is. As you may have figured out by now (at least if you know the New Testament really well), Matthew 23:8-10 (for example, "But be not ye called Rabbi...") becomes a lot more serious and pertinent to one like me when he or she has his eyes opened to his or her Jewish roots.

You might have furthermore noted that I used "Yehovah" instead of the P'rushi euphemisms such as "Adonai" and "HaShem". As Matthew 23:8-10 becomes a lot more serious and pertinent to one like me, what Scripture really calls God becomes a lot more serious and pertinent—even if (as in my case) the seriousness and pertinence are affected by evil men such as Nehemia Gordon, a so-called "Karaite" ("Qara'i", literally "Scripturalist"). As far as Nehemia Gordon is concerned, by the way, I went from wanting to learn as much as possible from Nehemia Gordon—even though he is Anti Messianic—to figuring out quickly who he was and wanting to never have anything to do with him again (and part of how I figured out who Nehemia really is has to do with the fact that I come from the family from which I come—and coming from that family entails dealing with and knowing, or at least having previously dealt with and coming to have a knowledge of, deceit and abuse of all kinds. By the way, see my YouTube video "Verbal Abuse From Nehemia Gordon And Evidence Thereof".).

Meanwhile, my family and our history (along with, among other matters, my dealings with Nehemia) prove that Genesis 50:20 and Romans 3:1-8 are also more serious and pertinent—and you will see all the more how that is the case as you continue to read this memoir.