last day is in the books
We had a shortened final day today. When we appeared in the office, we were asked in to sit and have coffee and cookies. This has never happened before, but we were only too happy to partake. The jovial mood may have been due to today being the birthday of one of the staff members.
We got to the site about 10:15, with our new broom that promptly fell apart. We worked on several areas til I wandered off to take some pictures. At the edge of the cemetery there is a monument. I was standing there taking a picture and two Polish women (roughly of my generation) started talking. I stumbled through "I don't speak Polish," in Polish and they answered, in Polish, with repeated thank yous. It was clear that they had a great deal of appreciation for the work being done and Plaszow, and it was very fitting to run into them on my last day. Unfortunately, they lapsed back into the 99.9% of the language I don't know, but as they walked away, they were saying, in thick Polish accents, "thank you very much," over and over again, interspersed, I'm sure with "is that the right way to say it?" in Polish. It was a great moment and I wish I had had the presence of mind to ask if I could get a picture with them.
I'm sure I should have something very pithy to say now, but I'd rather retreat quietly, remembering the 2 Polish ladies.
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