Wk 3: Out of Place

 

No one could have felt more out of place than Michalena Lyskawa on her wedding day.  Known as Lena, she was born in Posnan on 28 September 1877 to Franciszek Lyskawa and Francizka Konieczna. Her father died in 1894 in Poland, leaving a wife and four children.  In 1901, sponsored by her uncle, Jan Antczak, Lena sailed alone on the SS Pomeranian to the United States.  She arrived at Baltimore, MD in 1901, and continued on to Detroit, MI by train.  She worked in a tobacco factory, saving enough to send for her mother and two sisters. (Her brother came later).  Shortly after her family arrived, she was introduced to Frank Joblinski, a first generation American. His parents arrived in Detroit shortly before his birth in 1875. In 1893 they bought a farm in Romulus, MI, a very rural area. Two weeks later, on 28 September. 1903 the couple were married at St. Francis D’Assissi Church in Detroit. 

Family lore said that Lena cried all the way to Romulus.  It was an out of place match. She was well educated and spoke five languages.  He spoke Polish and broken English. Still, they raised five children and buried two babies.  Frank taught the children the value of a hard day’s work, how to farm and take good care of the horses that pulled the carriages and the plows.  Lena taught them the value of education and how to cook and clean.  She fought to keep them in school as long as possible, but they were needed on the farm, so after fifth grade Frank figured they had learned enough.  When the youngest child was in fifth grade, Lena and his teacher sat down with Frank and convinced him to let the boy finish all eight grades at Hale School, the one room schoolhouse he attended. 

From his mother, that boy continued to love to learn, although he was not able to attend high school, Frank put his foot down, high school cost money and transportation was required.  My dad never got back to school but was always reading and learning, finishing two newspapers and several news magazines until the day he died.   

I never met my  paternal grandmother, but from an out of place beginning she cemented her place in Romulus, MI and in her children’s hearts.