Story told about a Grandfather who has moved to live near his grandchildren.
A family in Bolivia
One of the main reasons for moving to live near the rest of our family in Bolivia is the desire
by my parents to be with their grandchildren. Well, there's a bit of history and family lore
behind that.
My great-grand father, Josef, is quite significant among those people my father considers
meaningfull in his life.
Josef use to take litlle Stana (Stanislav, my father), then just a 4-5 year old child (and his
only grandchild) for walks in Krnov, in northern Tchekoslovakia. They would go to visit
workmen's shops, and Josef would let Stana handle tools, and would explain the way things
were done, materials used, and such things that anybody in his sane mind would consider too
much for such a young child.
Of course Stana did learn a lot from that and still treasures the memories.
World War Two came, the Tchek resistance killed Richard Heindrich, and the Germans
destroyed not only Lidice but detained as many suspects of anything they could. One of my
Dad's uncles was linked with the resistance, was caught and shot, and as reprisals one more
of the family was to be detained. So Josef was sent to Oswiecim (a.k.a. Auschwitz) and a few
days later a letter came from the German authorities saying that he had died there from
'respiratory complications'.
So now Dad wants to take his grandsons here in Bolivia for walks where people do things,
where wonderful things are to be learned. I can say from direct experience that this early
learning of materials and methods makes for life-long ability with tools, and better
self-reliance.
Told by Yamandu
This page was first published on the 19th April, 1999 with the permission of Yamandu who holds the copyright and was last modified 19th April, 1999 .
