Vati's Parents

This is the only picture of grandfather Franz Wawrzyniak and grandmother Wawrzyniak I've ever seen. Can you make out the back of the circus tent behind them?

The little I know about my Polish grandparents came from Mutti. Vati almost never talked about them, and seldom talked about his brothers and sister.

I know that my grandfather’s name was Franz, since my brother was named after him. Franz Wawrzyniak, or Francesco (which was his artist name) owned Circus Francesco, one of the largest circuses in Poland before the war. The family traveled along the Polish-Russian border a lot, and during one of their tours in Russia my father was born. So technically Vati was a Russian, not a Pole.

I learned about that when I got ready to get married to an U.S. soldier. My fiancé, Gary, had a top security clearance. When his superiors discovered that the father of his bride was born in Russia, they advised him to just live with me and marry me after he’d left the service.

For both of us this was out of the question, however, so Gary took a demotion in his clearance and a less sensitive job in the Army, and we got married. Eventually, they returned him to his highly classified job, since he was the best they had for it!

Back to my Polish grandparents. I’m not sure if it’s true, but Mutti told me that Vati had two older brothers who stayed in Russia when the circus returned to Poland before the war. In any case, the Nazi army invaded and conquered Poland. Circus Francesco kept traveling in Poland, but within a very short time the Nazis requisitioned the circus, made a Nazi party member the owner, and forced the Wawrzyniak family to work as hired artists in their own circus. The Nazi owner then gave the circus to a small German circus family as a wedding present, and now the family traveled in Germany. My grandfather died shortly after he was forced to work in his own circus in Germany. Mutti told me it was from grief to see his life’s work stolen away.

This happened before Vati and Mutti met. After the war, the Wawrzyniak family regained their circus, and, before I was born, they returned to their beloved Poland. Mutti refused to go to another country where a totalitarian government ruled, so Vati stayed with her in Germany. His mother must have died around that time, since when I was born she had already passed away.

My father’s two brothers and one sister stayed in Poland. We children met Uncle Henrik only once, and never met Aunt Sonja or Uncle Josef.

The only family I knew of lived in our little caravan home.

Next time, I’ll talk more about Mutti’s parents and why we never met them, either.

The Joy of Having Grandparents

Grandpa and Granddaugther

No child can ever have enough grandparents! Whether grandma is Mom’s or Dad’s mother, grandpa’s second wife and joined the family after the grandkids were already born, or whether she is a great-grandma, or the mother of Daddy’s second wife, it doesn’t matter at all to a child!

I think I’ve been all of them, except for a physical grandmother, since none of the children I gave birth to have babies yet. And yet I have enjoyed every one of my grandkids, none of them step-grandkids in my way of thinking.

What matters to a child are these: Cookies on the table when visiting grandma and grandpa, the toys the grandparents have stashed away for the kids to play with when they visit, the rides they take them on, and the games they play.

When the grandchildren get a little older, grandparents become even more important. When mother does nothing but complain at you, when father orders you around, when you have no one to talk to who understands, there are always the grandparents. They might be old, but they know how to listen. They might take you to a dinner and a show. And they always patiently wait until you’re ready to talk. They don’t complain and don’t judge, and sometimes they say something that helps you a lot.

What blessings grandparents can be!

Below is a link to A Cup of Comfort for Grandparents, where you can read a story about my boy Daniel and his grandparents.

A Cup of Comfort for Grandparents

When I was small, living in the caravan home, I had grandparents too. But I couldn’t envision them, at all. More about my grandparents next time.