Veronica Hydzik

I will like to say some words about our grandmother, babcia on behalf of the grandchildren my sister Nicole, brother Simon and myself Travis.

Our babcia was kind and gentle and played an important part in all of our lives particularly when we were growing up. During the school holidays we loved to sleep over her house, which was stocked with yogurt ice-creams, popcorn, ginger beer, and cherry syrup which we drank with herbal teas.

Babcia taught us about gardening when we picked strawberries, passionfruit, and dug-up beetroot from her garden. She taught us how to cook polish food,  with babcia letting us help roll the perogi dough and  peel the beetroots for the beetroot soup.

Babcia was a strong character and very independent, she honestly believed she was just as capable in her old age as when she was younger, quite recently she was explaining to us that she wasn’t able to prune her roses as quickly due to her poor eyesight even though she did try, and a few years earlier she had cemented a patch of paving in her back yard, these were activities that babcia considered normal for her age. One time I asked to borrow some of jarjia’s, our grandfather’s, workshop tools, and babcia was a little hesitant to lend them as she genuinely believed she was going to need to use them herself.

Babcia had a sharp memory, and always wanted to be part of the conversation. Even though babcia would miss a lot of the conversation due to her poor hearing, she took any opportunity to tell her stories, I remember one time when we visited and all she talked about was the new clock she bought. Every so often she would look at the clock and ask us ‘do you like my new clock?’ The more touching stories babcia shared was when she talked about her life and family in Poland and the hardships of the war.

Most of Babcia’s family and friends would know that Babcia was  a very punctual person, one time when visiting we arrived only a few minutes late, and she was sitting at the front of her house on her green table and chair and greeted us with “Travis, why are you late?”

Babcia was a loving mother and always thinking of her children, Aunty Danuta and my father, one time when we were visiting we were talking about my dad working away, which she was not very fond off, Babcia looked thoughtfully at me and said “but what can I do now, he’s a big boy, he’s sixty years old’ while shrugging her shoulders.

Babcia, we love you dearly, and will miss you terribly, your grandchildren Travis, Simon and Nicole.