Adela

Today we met our relative Adela Besciak Chrobak, who is 98 years old. She's the closest relative yet that we've met on our trip - 1st cousin with my Mom's father.

Adela remembers my great grandmother returning to Poland for a visit in the 1930's, but there has not been any contact with family in America for a long time. We began to share old family pictures with each other and were amazed when we both had the same family wedding photo from over 70 years ago.

Adela has seen so much in her lifetime. She described the amazing story of her experiences during the 2nd World War, when 11 German soldiers were living in her family's home. Her future husband was captured by Germans, escaped, and hid for months in a hay stack only to be captured again. He was sent to forced labor camps before finally being freed when the war came to an end. Hearing this described by someone who lived it first hand was really emotional and makes me even more thankful for the good life my family and I have today.

The look in Adela's eyes today crossed the language barrier between us. She was so happy to see her family from America returning to Poland, so happy to share her stories. This day made all the expense and planning of this trip worth it!