GINA`S STORY

It is not easy for me to write this book, however I had made my decision to try as hard as I can to write my life story because if I did not do it now, I probably never would - Better late than never. Like the famous business man Sir Richard Branson said in his book “Screw it, let's do it".

I was born into the Communist regime in Poland just after the Second World War in a small village called Niedamowo. I was a farmer's daughter, and life was not easy, education was not a priority within the family, but I always tried my best to achieve the things in life that I wanted to do. A philosophy I have always lived by. Not having anybody highly educated in my family to give me advice and encouragement was difficult for me. I always felt that I had to have self believe and stamina to achieve my educational dreams that of qualifying to be a teacher. The pitfalls of not having family support and the standard of education in the country (where it was assumed that farmers children would grow up and remain in the farming community) therefore education did not matter that much for the future of country children that was assumed that country children would go on to work on the farms therefore the standard of education was not as good as schools in the country than the schools in the cities. City children were deemed to need to be more academic for their future lives.

When I was a young girl, I found learning different languages difficult. It was not one of my strong points in my education. I loved, and still do, subjects such as: mathematics, geography and history. At the age of nine, I made my mind up what I wanted to do when I grew up - I wanted to be a school teacher, because knowledge for me is the best thing a person can have because having knowledge and using it is the key to a better life. I wanted to pass on to children what I have and that is a thirst for knowledge and then using that knowledge to enhance their lives.

At the age of fourteen I successfully passed all my exams with very good results that would have enabled me to go to college. My parents were very proud of me however when I said to my parents I wanted to go to College to get a teaching qualification to my surprise they said, 'no', because being a farmer's daughter it would be a waste of money and time as they needed me on the farm to help them to run it. Like most young people of that era they had to conform to their parents wishes. Parents at that time were only thinking of the immediate family finances not the long term prospect for the child.

My nature was patient, sensible, tolerant, peace loving, and hard working. Having respect for my parents and myself I conformed to what they wanted. I was appreciative and content with what I had and possessed materially, however my thirst for knowledge and a better life was still within me. I am very grateful to my parents for teaching me how to work hard and appreciate hard earned money, however, the life they had was not the life what I wanted. I did not want to remain working on a farm for the rest of life. My thirst for education and a better life was still deep within me.

I started my new journey at the age of twenty six to prove to myself that I could achieve the things I dreamed about and wanted in my life and knew I could achieve this with patient, determination, and work hard.

In 1970, at the age of twenty four, I bought myself one bedroom flat which in Communist Poland you could only dream about but for me became a reality. Two years later, I passed my final exam and got my teaching qualification certificate. It was not or ever has been an easy thing to follow my dream, but I was patient, practical and realistic about it, I did not sit daydreaming about it or only talk about things which were impossible. I took steps that were needed to achieve what I wanted.

My advice to anyone would be 'whatever it is you want to achieve or do in your life if you don't make the effort you won't achieve!!!!. So take that first step and there will be many steps to follow to achieve your dream. There will be knock backs but in the end you will feel satisfaction and purpose in life and the sense of achievement that you did it!

I have learned a lot in my life however my lessons began at home with my parents and siblings when I was very young. The love of education and teaching began at home when I helped my older sister Trudka when she was at school with maths a subject that she had some difficulty with. I taught my younger sister Teresa to read and write. The experience of teaching and learning the importance of education were embedded in me at that early stage in my life and still remain with me. At the age of sixty five I am still learning and hope I will never stop.

Barbara was a lady I met at my local sports and leisure centre Sowerby Bridge

in West Yorkshire a county in the North of England where I went swimming. I met her in the late Autumn of 2010. Barbara said after a having a nice conversation with me she noticed I spoke good English but with an accent.

Barbara revealed that she was interested in people who come from other countries. I like to know their backgrounds and how they come to end up in England. I like to know their history, such as where do people come from and the life they lead in this small town of Sowerby Bridge This interest is born out of the fact that I have lived here all my life and I have never ventured abroad. She said “You could call me a "Nosey Parker"!. But I am genuinely interested in people and their experience of coming from another country to settle here and contrast the differences between their homeland and England. She politely said to me I hope you do not mind me asking you a question?' 'No, not at all' I replied.

'What accent are you speaking? Which country are you from? Have a guess where do you think I am from can you tell by my accent. She said she was not good at guessing but she thought by my accent was like people who came from Scandinavia because of my physical attributes that of being blond, slim and a tall lady.

I replied, 'I am sorry to disappoint you but my accent is not Scandinavian it is Polish!'. I would never have guessed that she said because when I worked in the mills I had met a few Polish people in the Mills, mainly men. From that meeting Barbara and I became good friends despite her life and mine being completely different. Friends enhance people lives and you can learn a lot of things from each other.

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Barbara said that because I had lived in two countries my life was interesting. When I spoke about myself and what I had achieved in my life in two different countries and cultures she was impressed. I thought of how her life was very different from mine. Barbara life was very hard but then my life had its challenges too. She was one generation older than me and had experienced some very difficult circumstances in her life.

Barbara wanted to know more about my past, where I grew up as a child, my family and how I came to live in England. Why had I settled in this little town of Sowerby Bridge? Was I happy in my country as a child and then as an adult?. I told her I was a kindergarten teacher in Poland before I came to live in England. What made me choose England instead other European countries and did I speak the English language before I came over here?. If not, did I have a problem communicating with English people especially in our region of Yorkshire. The Yorkshire accent is difficult to understand even for English people, so for a foreigner we had to try to understand English and also regional accents. The Yorkshire dialect is one of the most difficult to follow.

I wanted to know what Barbara did for a living in England before she retired, if I am honest, I did not know much about her. When anyone speaks to me I get the impression that I listen to people and understand people and I always have time for people. I did not like gossip or nonsense. I present myself as a knowledgeable and confident person with a positive outlook on life nothing was too much for me.

This is Barbara's story. She was born in Sowerby Bridge and went to school here, but at the age of fourteen her education stopped. All my life I have worked in the textile industry. It was hard and dirty work, twelve hours shifts for very little money. The textile industry was very low paid, and the type of work it was made you very tired and dirty. That was the kind of work you had to do if you did not have a good education. When she looked back on that time period she said “you never had to worry about not having a job as textile work was readily available”. You could at that time period change your job as often as you choose because there was lots of textile work available here.

After the second World War, the small town of Sowerby Bridge was very busy because the textile industry was in full swing, this country needed a lot of people to fill job vacancies which were available in the textile industry all over Britain. The county of Yorkshire was known and very famous for the textile industry. Small towns such as Sowerby Bridge had over ten thousand jobs available in the mills. Halifax is only two and half miles away from Sowerby Bridge. Halifax was known world-wide as the place that Crossley's made their top quality carpets using the wool from the sheep around the area. Halifax's other companies known world-wide were Rowntrees-Mackintosh, Webster's ales, and the biggest building Society in the world for many years was the Halifax. It was also known for the Piece Hall and the Gibbet. Neighbouring towns such as Bradford, Leeds, Dewsbury, all had a thriving textile trade. The north of England had a thriving textile industry just after the war.

This is a poem of Halifax, as opposed to Calderdale by the people of Halifax in the Evening Courier.

It is Halifax!

Valley of mills and chimney stacks,

Granite and grime and back-to-backs,

Crossley's carpets and toffee Macks,

That is Halifax!

Wainhouse Tower, Phyllis Bentley's tales,

Mullion windows and packhorse trails,

The Gibbet, the Piece Hall and Webster ales.

That is Halifax!

Unfriendly outcrops weathered rock,

Friendly Victorian town hall clock,

Warm-hearted fork from homely stock,

That is Halifax!

Earning the living with sweat and skill,

Rugged and constant the Beacon Hill,

Ever they were, forever they will

be Halifax!

But bigger and better the pundits claim,

In the progress they changed your name,

The same old paint in the different frame,

Still Halifax!

A new coat of arms the council chose,

Lancashire red on the Yorkshire rose,

God only knows such a hybrid grows,

Not Halifax!

Insist bureaucrats on your Calderdale,

Frank “Huddersfield” on out-ward mail,

Whether it goes it will always hail

from Halifax!

A spade is a spade and clown is a clown's a clown,

You don't reverse “up” by calling it “down”,

And you won't change the name of my home town,

It is Halifax!

The Managers of the textile industry travelled abroad to European countries to invite people from overseas to fill these vacancies and a lot of European people made homes in England, without the people power to run the mills the industry would not have prospered the way it did. From the beginning it was strange for English people to communicate with all these foreign people with-out being able to speak the same language and to trust them but soon they began to trust foreign people as they proved to be very hard-working, honest, and reliable. Yorkshire people had no problem with people from other countries we had mutual respect and tolerance of each other. We learned a lot from each other we learned about their culture's. Firm friendships were formed between the Yorkshire folk and people from other countries. Most foreign people learned English, therefore communication became easier.

In the 19th century when the domestic system (that of producing cloth at individual homes changed to the manufacturing of cloth in mills). towns like Sowerby Bridge and the neighbouring villagers thrived and became important as textile manufactures.

At the end of the 20th century the textile firms and the mills in Sowerby Bridge and all the manufacturing industry in England declined because of competition from abroad because they could produce cloth cheaper than here. The wages and energy cost were cheaper than here therefore the thriving textile industry of towns like Sowerby Bridge were over.

Most part of the mills have been converted to flats after being empty for many years. Some mills have been demolished and rebuilt to the standard of the twenty first century and some have been converted to small working units.

On my way to Halifax library I met Barbara, she said she was going to make an appointment to have her eyes tested as her vision was not very good for reading. Her reading glasses were very old but she felt she could not afford to buy new ones as these are so expensive these days and it was not easy to live on a widow's pension. She thought she needed a pair of new reading glasses to be able to read the news- paper. I explained to her you do not need to buy an expensive pair of glasses if you just need them for reading. You as a pensioner can get your eyes tested for free and then get the prescription to take to another shop and buy cheap reading glasses. She only read the news-papers, books did not interest her because she had never been a good reader of books they never interested her, she thought they were boring and a waste of time. I went with Barbara to arrange an appointment to have her eyes tested. We arranged to meet at the Halifax bus station on the day of her appointment for her to have her eyes tested. She went and had her eyes tested and found she needed new reading glasses. She felt as a lot of older people that she should buy her glasses from the opticians that had tested her eyes. I told her that was not necessary and that she should take advantage of cheaper suppliers of glasses. We went to a local supplier of reading glasses and she tried on a few pairs before deciding on a pair she liked. She could not believe the difference they made to her vision. She kept thanking me as she said being able to see and read the papers meant a lot to her. I was so happy and glad our friendship had helped her in a practical way.

Our lives were shown as totally different in respect to education I loved reading books something that Barbara had never done I love to get books from the library and buy books from the library when they have their sales. Barbara met me in town once when I had been to the sales and had a bagful of books.

She exclaimed if only she got as much pleasure out of reading books as you do Gina. I love of books and being able to read have always been an important factor in my life. I read more in winter than summer because in the summer Peter and I spend a lot of time in our garden. We love being out side in the fresh air looking after our vegetables which we grow such as: tomatoes, courgette, runner beans, haricot beans, few potatoes, but of course we cannot grow a lot of our fresh vegetables because of the limited space we have. In the greenhouse we grow the tomatoes the rest we grow in the garden. We have two fruit trees, one pear tree and one apple tree together with two blackcurrant bushes and one raspberry bush'.

All of Barbara's life, she felt after working twelve hours in the mill with no time for anything else in her life just work without any time for leisure she gets annoyed when today she listen to young people complaining about being bored she says to them; you do not know what hard work means, I have had to work hard all my life because of that I do not know what boredom means as I have never experienced it in my life.

The house we live in now is built of a red brick, I do not care much about

our house but I like the big windows, you can look out in to the gardens and far in the Pennines Hills. Only takes fifteen minutes to walk from our house and you are in the open country. This part of Yorkshire, specially the country side is so beautiful and peaceful, when I am looking across the valley and up the hills on the farms which surround the valley, grazing cows and sheep, reminds me a bit of my home land. As a young girl helping my parents on our farm, my job was to look after the animals in the fields I was a small girl then.

I loves very much my adapted country England and the county of Yorkshire. The people well- come me to this beautiful and peaceful place. I have lived here for thirty nine years. I could not have chosen a better place to live. I am so grateful and appreciate the fact that I live here. Every morning in my prayers, I think and thank God how lucky I am.

Looking back on my life when I compare it to my parent's life and the way they lived. It was like I have lived on another planet from them. My parent's life was very plain and limited, what they did and what they saw of the world. They never had the chance and the opportunity to travel in Poland, never mind abroad. When my sister Helena got married and moved away with her husband Franciszek to live in the South of Poland. Only once in their life my parents at Christmas time managed to visit my sister and my family in the South of Poland. Only one of my parents could travel because they could not trust anybody with the life stock on their farm. My parents were good farmers and dedicated their lives to stock and to their land.

The first visit to South of Poland was made by my mother. She wanted to see for herself, how her eldest daughter settled in that part of the country and what it was like to travel. After a few years she managed to persuade the rest of the family to visit my sister too. They wanted their parents to see a different part of Poland.

Barbara asked me about, “ how did I feel when I fly because she never had a chance in her life to fly on an aeroplane. What did I see and was it nice or scary?. I loved flying when you are up in the air on a cloudy day and the sun is shining above the clouds. Blue sky, clouds underneath the plane you have this fantastic feeling like you are on a mountain. On a sunny day the mountains are covered in snow and you feel like you are skiing. It is a beautiful feeling difficult to describe you have to experience for yourself to appreciate it. I can only speak for myself everybody feels different about flying.

Two years ago in 2009, my best friend Nina from Poland came to visit me, we use to worked together in the kindergarten in Poland for eight years, before I came to England. Nina had never flown before. At the age of sixty eight she decided to fly to England by herself and she loved it. Now she wants to fly everywhere.

Barbara a friend of mine was telling me what life was like for her when she was young. Her family were poor financially. In the part of Yorkshire where Barbara lived only few people had some money to spent on travel and on holidays. Poor people like Barbara had to think very hard, how to manage their money. At the end of a week she had nothing left to save even for essentials like clothing for her children contrast that with today's parents whom always seem to have plenty money, even children, you only need to look around; expensive clothes, mobile phones, every child appears to get pocket money. When Barbara was young when a new winter coat and a pair of winter boots were needed you had to save for months and months sometimes for a year before having enough money to buy those things, however things are cheaper now and it appears that children get something bought every week, but they appear not appreciate what they get materially mobile phones, clothes, shoes, days out, trips to the cinema and holidays unlike Barbara and hundreds who were in the same position financially poor would have appreciated those things.

My husband Peter and I have travelled a lot of beautiful parts of the world. The World is a beautiful place to live, God created this magnificent earth for all living creatures to live in a harmony with each other. Man constructed, built some wonderful buildings. God and man have worked together for a better and peaceful future.

Barbara thought it was very nice to have a drink with me and a chat, it had been a long time since Barbara remembered when she had a lovely day like that.

I said we must meet more often my sixty fifth Birthday is coming up on the twenty second of February, I would like you to come Barbara and you will meet my husband Peter, our good polish friends, and our English friend Terry, he invited us on his ninetieth birthday at his house, he had an open house party, last month.

Barbara said “I would love to come, thank you very much, that would be wonderful”.

Barbara arrived home very happy, what a lovely day I have had, I thought and hoped many days like that to come. Days like that make you think, life can be wonderful I thought it is up to you how you can spend a day happy or sad, even at my age, I can still enjoy life to the full. I wish I could meet more people like Barbara. Barbara was looking forward to meet my husband Peter and my friends, at my birthday party.