Firstly, how the case to save the late
Katherine Ushinsky Gajdos’ house is related to shit that I can’t make up:
1. With my grandaunt Helen Gaydos Wojnar (z”l)—my paternal grandmother’s
oldest sibling—being long deceased, her widower and children had decided to
tear down her (and my grandmother’s) paternal grandmother’s old farmhouse down
without even considering the historical ramifications of tearing down the
farmhouse.
2.
Grandaunt Helen’s (and Grandma’s)
sister MaryAnn once again told a classic bubbe
meise that—I’m sure that—she still hasn’t told anybody: after all, the
historical significance of the farmhouse begins with the fact that Anna née
Jaszová was not “Maria Anna Yzchinski” by birth. As I mentioned in a telephone
conversation and further explained to my father in a text message—since, as I
type (on September 6-7, 2017/Elul 15-16, 5777), he’s visited one of Grandaunt
Helen’s sons three times while he’s been down in Florida—I understandably
wondered if Grandaunt Helen’s widower and descendants left up the farmhouse,
which I’d seen the times that we were up on the former Gaydos farmstead (where
the Gaydos-Wojnar cabin is).
3.
Bugs, rotting wood, excursions of wildlife
within the farmhouse, apparently-common-across-Pennsylvania houses like that,
and other given excuses for tearing down the Gaydos Farmhouse are no excuses at
all.
4. Until I brought up the possibilities of renovation or replica building,
nobody even considered leaving up the farmhouse.
I gave my father the
short version of the historical significance of the Gaydos Farmhouse:
“Mickey
Haslin was Great-Granddad Gaydos' maternal cousin. They had the common
grandparent of Anna (Szuszanna?) née Jaszová (Yashová), divorced from Jan
Haszlinsky and remarried to Jan Uszinsky (Ushinsky). Her parents were Jan and
Eva Polinová Jasz (Yash). She was Jewish as were her parents, and as was Jan
Uszinsky.
“That
is why Great-Granddad identified as "Russian"—his mom, Mickey
Haslin's only parental aunt, was born as Katarina Szuszanna Uszinskyová to
Slovakian-Jewish parents of Russian-Jewish descent in Gaboltov,
Slovakian-Austrian Hungary. Mickey Haslin seems to have done the same—his
father was George Hazlinsky, and not a single one of his kids was a
"Mary" (even for the traditional Jewish usage for "Miriam".
His kids were named Mercedes, Kathleen, and Michael.
“They
used a mix of Ashkenazi and Sephardi naming customs, by the way—quite a few
Ashkenazim overall, irrespective of beliefs re Jesus or amounts of Sephardi
heritage, seem to have done this. "MaryAnn", BTW, could be used for
"Miriam Chanah".) That alone makes the farmhouse significant if you
ask me—i.e., the Crypto-Jewish paternal aunt of Mickey Haslin and widow of a
Crypto Jew (a son of Jan and Anna Hommová Gajdosz) owned that farmhouse as a
widow whom posthumously became the paternal grandmother-in-law to one of the
three IRS agents whom would help bring Nixon down.
“Also,
BTW, Ashkenazi Crypto Jews and their descendants (Anusim Ashkenazim v'B'nei
Anusim Ashkenazim) are probably as numerous as Sephardi ones—even John Kerry
would be John Kohn and Madeline Albright was born Madeline Korbelová, e.g..
Cameron Kerry is whom is called a "ba'al teshuvah", meanwhile,
whereas John Kerry and Joan Kerry identify as Jewish Catholics; and Madeline
Albright is a Jewish Episcopalian.”
In other words, the
seven following simple words sum up any tearing down of the farmhouse of Katherine
Susan Ushinsky Gaydos: a big mistake of literally-historical proportions!