Written letters to my grandmother, Lillian Dziekan

I call myself an old soul. I've always loved bird watching (since I was five!), I love lighthouses, I love scrapbooking and telling family stories and I love genealogy. Growing up I loved writing and I would write my grandma and ask her questions about her life. I would also package stationary for my grandma so she always had something to write me back on. I kept all of the letters we wrote back and forth and I scrapbooked a page on them. I am so thankful that I did this as it has helped me with my genealogy journey.

My grandmother, Lillian Kopec Dziekan, My brother Gregory Dziekan and my Grandfather Raymond Dziekan Sr. 

Correspondence from Lillian (Kopec) Dziekan to me (Briana Dziekan Fisher).


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5-14-02

1. Hello Bree and Joe,

I had a lovely day for Mother's day, all my kids were over.

Here are the answers

Grandpa had 8 siblings, he was the 8th child and his youngest sister was a girl named Florence. Grandpa is the only living sibling left. 

Grandma:
My mother was a wonderful mother. We were poor and without a father (They were married in a Catholic church but left us 3 girls for another woman with money who also had a husband.)

2. She (My mother) never swore, drank and worked part-time cleaning homes. I worked part time in high school to pay for my school books and clothes. 

I graduated from high school in 1947. Married Grandpa in 1948. 

Grandpa:
His mother was very stern but had to raise her 9 children since her husband died at the age of 41. Grandpa quit high school to go to work and then joined the navy when he was 17 years old.

3. Question
My childhood - Poor but a relaxing home. We were on welfare, living in a rented home. I also remembering as a childhood waiting for the Goodfellow's truck for our only Xmas gift. Those were in the depression years. 

I slept with my older sister Mary in the front bedroom. My mother and younger sister slept in the back bedroom.

We had a coal stove in the living room.

Where did I keep my things:
We had a bedroom set with drawers and a back porch for other things. 

On my 25th anniversary (wedding) my sister and I left for Poland. Grandpa did not want to go. A country about 50 years behind time, still under German's rule. 

After my mother died he came to visit us and stayed with my younger sister and then returned home to his 3rd wife. He always said God punished him and he did not have any more children with his 2 other wife's cause he did not support his 3 girls. Love Grandma. 

3. My mother dressed wearing nylons and a dress. She had brown hair and brown eyes. I always remember that she would pick up people's laundry to our home (washed and ironed). Brought the laundry in a wagon to our home and walked them delivered. My mother was a lovely, lovely lady. Died at the age of 69 years from a heart attack.

4. My father had blonde hair and hazel eyes. I was five years old when he left for Poland. He entered the country illegally from Canada. The judge sent him back to Poland cause he wanted to live with his girlfriend who was my godmother. Grandpa's father died when he was 9 years old. All he said he had dark hair and very tall. 

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So Lillian's father, Peter Kopec, left the family for her Godmother and was deported to Poland for failure to take care of his three girls. It sounds like her life was not easy after he left them, and her mother was a very hard worker trying to support them.

Grandpa Raymond Dziekan Sr. was one of 9 kids and his mother was very strict.

Peter Kopec is a big mystery to me in which I am still researching. I found a woman on Ancestry who is a third cousin to my father, in which I believe her great-grandfather, Joseph Kopec, is Peter Kopec's brother!

More letter's to come. I'm so glad I wrote my grandmother and asked all these questions!