Poznan, The Dean's Family

While getting our Polish Visa in Vienna in 1985, we had called an acquaintance in Poznan, Poland, to tell him we were hoping to visit with his family, the following week. He said they were leaving for the US the next day, but a friend, the Dean of the School of Law, would be staying in his apartment.

When we arrived in Poznan, our only problem was that we had no problem, but we wanted to meet the Dean and his family. I told the English speaking lady at the desk of the Hotel Merkur, located at ul Franklin Roosevelta 20, what we wanted, and she helped make the call. A young girl answered, and laughed and talked Polish, and finally another young girl took the phone and spoke English. Her father overheard, then remembered his friend said we might call. Now she knew why we called, she said they would be at the hotel in a few minutes.

The Dean and his daughter Danuta (Dany) came to meet us. At their home we met the mother, Urusla (Ula) and Alexandra (Ola), who had answered the phone. She is scheduled to start studying English in school, and she thought friends had another friend call and speak English to her as a joke. The Professor spoke German, and fair English. Dany spoke excellent English, and Ola and mother Ula just spoke Polish. But by 1991, Ola spoke excellent English.

In 1991 the people in the hotel again let me use the desk phone, and in a few minutes Dany and Ola greeted us and we followed them to Dany’s apartment. Dany apologized for the depressing building, and said we can see what a Communist Society produces. But while small, her apartment was spotless.

This day was the third birthday for Dany's daughter Olga. Dany, Olga, Ola, and Ula, four beautiful ladies. Ola was a teenager with a beautiful smile in 1985, and now she is a beautiful young lady. I said that Olga is lucky to start life with a beautiful mother, grandmother, and aunt.

We enjoyed both visits with this very interesting family who were so kind and helpful to drop-in guests. They gave us an extensive tour of the city in 1985, and Dany (who was about to become a Lawyer) accompanied us to the post office to help us get an answer to a question concerning money exchange. It turns out that the people at the border didn’t care what we were officially told, but that’s a story for another page.