I can't come close to remembering how many times Busia (grandmother) K, aka Marianna, my saintly, loving, kind, sweet, grandmother almost hugged me to death. She was a formidable woman, all 5 feet of her. When she got anywhere close to her favorite, and for a time only grandson (me), it was a matter of survival. She was an ardent hugger and squeezer extraordinaire.
Busia K was my dad's mother. She was the epitome of pure love. It was unthinkable that this bundle of loving energy could have hooked up with the notorious John Kramarczyk. The two worked together at the family store and after his premature death in 1936, she heroically ran the family business, raised her family and worked her fanny off.
No one will ever know how many customers she helped survive the Great Depression by extending credit, much of it never recovered. Her hard work, resolve and strong faith pulled the family through the depression. She ended up with decent savings that was passed on to her children over the years. I have nothing but great memories of her. I was lucky to have her until I turned 30 or so. She died at 75, a fairly long lifespan for those early hard working Polish ladies.
The women tended to live longer than their husbands, but I remember that the old southwest side neighborhood was full of 60 year old widows. The men folk worked and drank hard and faced an early death. Most of them were dead by the age of 60. Those who survived longer looked twenty years older than they really were. It was a tragedy of the times which left many grandsons of my age, without the pleasure and luxury of enjoying their grandfathers for any length of time. As it was, i knew only one of my grandfathers, but only for 5 years before his death. I still remember him -Josef Zdyr.
She would have smothered her 4 great grandsons, I'm sure, Those boys will never know what they missed.
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