Letters

 

In 1984, when we finally found our missing family in the USSR, we got letters.

The youngest son of my great-grandparents was like me.  Working to re-connect with family. As the youngest son of my family line, it was something I could understand.

All or letters to each other were peppered with questions.  And I do mean ALL.

He asked questions about our lives here in Canada...I asked questions about their lives in the USSR.  Of course, always careful to avoid political statements. But our families were able to re-connect after over 50 years. At last we found out what happened to everyone!

5 years later, we were privileged to welcome him, my grandfather's youngest brother, Johannes Gerk, to Canada for a one-month long visit.

Of course, there is a story there about how long it took for Communist authorities to allow an old man, in his 70's, to travel to Canada to reunite with family.  It took a lot of paperwork, and both he and I not giving up. But, no matter. I will write more later on how the visit went, but for now, I just wanted to note how important family was to him and I.

We called him "Uncle Vanya" (Uncle John) For me, personally, this was a dream come true. To give my grandmother peace, for her to finally know what happened to her family, was so important to me. But to also hear from my great uncle, the youngest brother of the grandfather I never knew....and to discover I was just like him in regards to importance of family.

I have saved all those letters. Each letter is dated and numbered, as well as the translation into English that my amazing wife Marina read out to me as I wrote it down.

This past week I was able to get some photos of the house he and his wife, Barbara, lived in.  They lived in the city of Angren, in the Uzbek Republic. (Now Uzbekistan) Moving there in 1971, when he retired, it was a lot warmer climate than what they were used to in Siberia, in the Ural Mountains!

The house is located in a section of Angren, known as the German part of the city. Much of it has been destroyed, as the German-Russian population left after the USSR collapsed...being fed-up with the continued cultural-genocide propagated by the Communists.

Folks in Angren very kindly took some pictures for me. It was cool to see where Uncle Vanya lived, knowing that when he lived there (he died in 1996)  he would have had a large garden, as well as raise chickens at the time.

 It brings back good memories. Sad that they are no longer here. It really was a privilege and honor to meet Uncle Vanya and get to know our missing family in Russia.