Merry Xmas italkians! Merry Xmas to all my italki friends! May you celebrate with your family and loved ones. I hope that 2014 brings you health, happiness and peace, wherever you are in the world.

The final chapter [ Stories from Siberia] The last chapter [Stories from Siberia] Irena ‘s premonition that she would never see her grand niece again came true. She died in 2011 at the age of 89 in the Kaunas hospital, as a result of slipping and hitting her head on an icy pavement outside her block of flats. Irena had been looking forward to seeing me, as I had previously talked to her on the phone making arrangements to visit her that autumn. Instead, I received an email from one of Irena’s relatives telling me that she’d died. It was too late to postpone my trip to Lithuania. Instead, Irena’s granddaughter Juliya walked all over Kaunas with me, reminiscing about her grandmothers and their 37 year exile in Siberia. Proudly, she showed me the new Acropolis Shopping Centre , but all I could think about, were the little kiosks that I had first seen in 1991.Then we went into the Soboras cathedral , where Juliya played the huge church organ. You can see a photo of this church below. Relatives had ensured that her grand mother Irena was buried next to her beloved sister Victoria and their mother Jadze. Juliya handed me Irena’s memoirs before I left, saying that her grandmother had always wanted me to have them. Translator’s note: Translating Irena’s memoirs ended up being a six month journey. I decided to post a weekly Notebook episode, and I found it emotionally exhausting to read Irena’s story in Lithuanian. I could almost see my great aunt was sitting in her usual spot in her kitchen talking to me and strangely, I often dreamt of her and Victoria whilst translating their life story. Despite their 37 years of exile in Siberia, Irena and Victoria did not hold any grudges against the Russians. They told me that they had met many warm hearted Siberian villagers who took pity on them and gave them food when they were nearly starving. I am very grateful for all the encouragement that I received from numerous italki members, when I first posted a Notebook entry asking whether I should translate and publish these stories of a life in exile. From the comments that people posted after each episode, I realized that many people were not aware of these tragic events in Lithuania’s history. My heartfelt thanks to Perla who has faithfully translated each episode into Spanish and to Melfree for his translations into Chinese.

Why did my sister have to die? [ Stories from Siberia continued] Why did my sister have to die? [ Stories from Siberia continued] Translated from Lithuanian from the memoirs of Irena K I remember the year 2000 very well. It was when Lithuania’s men’s basketball team won the bronze medal at the Olympics in Sydney, Australia. Jura rang me to tell me the news, since we are nine hours behind them. That year, Victoria got a very bad case of gastroenteritis. I am not sure what she had eaten, but I wanted to call the ambulance to take her to hospital. Since we had just paid the gas and electricity bills, Victoria made a fateful statement: ” There is no need for it Irena, I am not that bad. I don’t need an ambulance. We can’t afford it”. I should not have listened to her. The next day her pulse was so weak, that I grabbed the telephone and phoned for the ambulance. At the hospital, the doctors discovered that Victoria was severely dehydrated and sadly she died later the next day. I blamed myself day after day, for not ringing for the ambulance sooner. We buried Victoria next to her beloved mother Jadze and her son Victor in the Kaunas cemetery. Now I was totally alone . We had lived through 37 years of exile in Siberia together. I had nursed Victoria through the pain of her having a breast amputated in Kyusyur and then we had lost our husbands within a year of each other. Even though Victoria and I had disagreed about some things, we had lived together for so long, that we used to finish each other’s sentences. I felt as if half my body had been amputated. In 2007, when Jura came to visit me again, I took her to the Kaunas cemetery and we put some beautiful red roses on Victoria’s grave and lit a candle in her memory. We walked all over town visiting Victoria’s favourite parks and then some cafes in Freedom Boulevard. But it did not feel the same without her. It was snowing in Freedom Boulevard , so Jura and I clung to each other in order not to slip on the icy snow. I sensed however, that Victoria was with us every step of the way. As my grand niece’s plane flew out of Vilnius airport, I had a terrible premonition that I would never see her again. Here is a video of Freedom Boulevard in Kaunas during winter. The song that you hear is about freedom. Go to: http://kaunas.kasvyksta.lt/2012/12/16/puga-kaune-2012-12-16/

Food! Glorious Food! [ Stories from Siberia continued] Food! Glorious Food! [ Stories from Siberia continued] Translated from Lithuanian from the memoirs of Irena K Whenever our grand niece came to visit us she would always be interested in traditional Lithuanian food. We had great times together showing Jura how to make dishes like Kugelis [ a potato bake], Koldunai [like Italian tortellini] and Cepelinai [ like a huge gnocchi, shaped like a zeppelin and filled with meat] . One evening, all of our relatives were invited to our place for dinner as Jura wanted to make us a typical Australian meal. She even bought a few bottles of champagne. Victoria and Juliya liked her ‘pavlova’ cake the most. She explained that an Australian chef had created it in honour of Anna Pavlova, the famous Russian ballerina. It was like a huge meringue, but soft inside. Jura decorated it with cream, fresh strawberries and blackberries. Victoria and I made our “poor man’s cake”. It was just sliced apples in a greased frying pan with a cake mixture consisting of 1 egg, 1 cup of flour and a bit of butter, mixed up with milk. Your pour the cake mix over the top of the apples. When it had fished cooking on the top of the stove, I turned it out onto a plate and it had apples on the top. Then I sprinkled some sugar and cinnamon over it. Our relatives brought over some bottles of “kvass” to drink which they had made during summer. Jura wanted to cook us a traditional Australian lamb roast for the main course, but unfortunately we couldn’t buy lamb anywhere, as Lithuanians eat mainly pork. So instead, she roasted a leg of pork with potatoes ,carrots and peas. Victoria and I really liked it! This was the sort of food we dreamt about in our cold Siberian exile. Also, Jura had brought with her a few packets of Australian chocolate biscuits called ‘Tim Tams. Little Anna, Juliya’s daughter loved them so much, that her chubby little fingers wouldn’t let anyone take them away. I only wish that our mother Jadze and father Victor had been alive to meet Jura. I think that they would have liked to have been part of our family celebration. Translator’s note: For those who are interested, this website contains recipes and photos of traditional Lithuanian food. http://ausis.gf.vu.lt/eka/food/fcont.html

An Australian visitor at Christmas [ Stories from Siberai cont] An Australian visitor at Christmas [ Stories from Siberia continued] Translated from Lithuanian from the memoirs of Irena K In November 1991, Victoria and I became rather anxious when we received the long awaited letter from our Australian grand niece, who wrote that she was going to visit us in Kaunas at Christmas time. “Oh my God Irena! What will we feed her? “ lamented Victoria. “Everyone knows that westerners only eat fresh food and our tiny fridge won’t be big enough. What sort of Christmas can we possibly afford to give her?” “Do you think she’ll expect cereal for breakfast each morning?” I asked Victoria. We wondered if Jura would be comfortable sleeping on the divan in our tiny lounge room. Then we debated the cost of her going to the hairdresser every day, as we had heard that was what western women did. We looked around our little flat. The worn linoleum, the faded curtains and our home made mop made us feel very ashamed of our poverty. For once, even our yellow canary Dory couldn’t cheer me up. We need not have worried, because once we met our Australian grand niece, she put us at ease. We realized that that all our preconceived ideas about western life were based solely on the TV series that Victoria and I watched. Fortunately our grand niece brought an adaptor plug along with her hairdryer and was very competent at styling her own hair. We were glad that Jura loved the snow and liked going to cafes as much as we did, cheerfully paying for our coffees as well. Our grand niece arrived with an envelope full of dollars as our Christmas gift which had been entrusted to her by our Australian relatives. Victoria and I couldn’t stop crying. That sort of unexpected generosity touched our hearts. We would certainly be able to afford a real mop and even fix up our old bathroom as well. I have decided to leave my memoirs to Jura, because as a history teacher, she was the only one who showed the most interest in our Siberian exile. Her spoken and written Lithuanian were quite good, but she spoke with an unfamiliar Australian accent. She didn’t know any current Lithuanian slang either, but we soon taught her some phrases. We took a trolley bus into the centre of Kaunas to show Jura our city’s beautiful Christmas tree all lit up. The three of us got on so well, that from then on, we called her ”our Australian angel.”

Can you spot a tourist? [ Stories from Siberia continued] Can you spot a tourist? [ Stories from Siberia continued] Translated from Lithuanian from the memoirs of Irena K Once Lithuania became independent in 1991, we saw many international tourists in our cities. Victoria and I would sit in the park or in the leafy shade of Freedom Boulevard in summer, with our sandwiches and play ‘spot the tourist’. One day we even travelled by train to Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. We found a sunny spot outside a cafe in the Old City. Victoria began our favourite past time. “ Irena, look at that tourist group with lots of cameras. Where do you think they’re from?” “That’s easy! They’re from Japan. ” I replied. “Who are those people with checked shorts and long socks? “ “ Um, I am not really that sure, ” I said. “They could be Americans.” People who had fled Lithuania during World War 2, felt safe to return and re-establish links with their relatives. Over the years we had quite a few relatives visit us and they always took us out for meals wherever we went. We were amazed that they still spoke excellent Lithuanian even after 50 years abroad. They explained that all the big cities in the western world had Lithuanian communities which ran their own weekend language schools, choirs, scouts, basketball teams and folk dancing ensembles. Some pensioners actually returned to live in Lithuania, as their overseas pensions made it worthwhile for them. Others were able to obtain Lithuanian passports. We didn’t hear of many people from abroad who had actually got back their houses or farms that had belonged to their parents or grandparents. That sort of thing involved a lot of paperwork, bureaucracy and huge lawyers’ fees.

OMG! A Terrible Discovery! [ Stories from Siberia continued] OMG! A Terrible Discovery! [ Stories from Siberia continued] Translated from Lithuanian from the memoirs of Irena K After Lithuania’s gained its independence in 1991, we visited many government offices in order to apply for a flat for our grand daughter Juliya and her brother Oleg. In the meantime, Juliya married a soldier in Yekaterinburg and gave birth to a baby girl called Anna. Once we were able to get them a flat, they all came to live in Kaunas near us. Then their marriage broke up.Juliya had a pure soprano voice and obtained work as an opera singer and then as an organist in a cathedral. We were very proud that she just walked into the Opera House and asked the Director if she could sing for him. She sang her heart out. Sometimes we’d mind Anna for her and take her for walks along the leafy Freedom Boulevard in the city’s centre.[ See photo below] When the Lithuanian government opened up the KGB archives to the public in the 1990’s, people were able to read what led to their exile to Siberia. We found out that in 1941, our next door neighbours had denounced us to the Russian NKVD for being the children of a Lithuanian military officer and implied that there was a possibility of us becoming involved in partisan activities against the Russians. Since we were Lt Colonel Viktor’s family, we were deemed ‘guilty’ as well. That day, we also met some survivors who had been children in 1941 and had been deported to Siberia for similar reasons. They told us terrible stories of children as young as 5 who had to work in children’s forced labour camps and survive as best they could. Thousands died. Victoria and I couldn’t believe it. We had spent 37 years in Siberian exile just for being an army officer’s family! That day we took a very long walk along Freedom Boulevard in our city of Kaunas and talked for hours about our life in Siberia. Then we sat down on a bench and started to sob. We wept for a long time for the terrible injustices that we and others had suffered in exile. Neither Victoria nor I cared how many people stared at us. Translator’s note: While reading whatever I could to get a better idea of what my great aunts had to endure in Siberia, I came across this video about a former Lithuanian President , Alexandras Stulginskas, who was also exiled to Siberia with his wife in 1941. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AsMDhebUr4&feature=player_embedded

Can you guess? What do these 7 words all have in common? 1. Banana 2. Dresser 3. Grammar 4. Potato 5. Revive 6. Uneven 7. Assess

Catch 22! [ Stories from Siberia continued] Catch 22! [ Stories from Siberia continued] Translated from Lithuanian from the memoirs of Irena K In the 1990’s committees were set up to help those Lithuanians who had suffered under the Communist regime. Volunteers travelled to Siberia to interview those Lithuanians who wanted to come back and helped to find and preserve the graves of those who had died there. Museums and monuments were established to educate people about the terrible conditions exiles and partisan fighters had to endure. Those Lithuanians still living in Siberia were given government assistance to purchase flats in Lithuania or reclaim property seized in the war by the Soviets. We helped our granddaughter Juliya and her brother Oleg to come and live in a flat near us. Lithuanians who had fled overseas during World War 2 could theoretically reclaim their original properties too, if they had proof of ownership. However there was a catch.... If the Russians living in these houses did not want to move, they had up to 10 years to find a suitable replacement property. A lot of records had also been destroyed during WW2 and very few families had documents which proved ownership of original family homes. Our new government had a difficult time changing the Russian rouble back to the original Lithuanian “litas”. In between, we were issued with special coupons. Some people lost money in the changeover period. Now we had to pay for rent, gas, water and electricity which had been free under Communism . Sometimes workers weren’t paid on time and had to borrow money from friends or relatives. Our pensions were stretched to the limit, but at least we had freedom . We would take our own coffee in a small plastic container to a cafe and just order hot water and a small cake. That was our only weekly luxury, but least we were free to speak Lithuanian and say what we wanted to say.