A TOUCH OF THE EXOTIC

I knew my mother's parents, & my father's mother pretty well, but I did not know my father's father very well. That Grandfather died when I was only eight years old. We called him Grandad.

My father felt the loss of Grandad very profoundly. My dad was very close with his dad. My dad told me Grandad's family was from the Tennessee and Kentucky area. The family had mostly Irish & English blood. The family name is an English version (Kelley).

Grandad was a doctor. There were stories of my grandparents working together as a medical team (among other things, my father's mother was a surgical nurse). I have even heard stories of my Grandparents being called to Hearst Castle in the 1920 or 1930s on a medical call. I have also heard they loved each other passionately in the early years, before my dad's accident.

When I was born my Grandfather told my mother he was going to buy me, his first grandchild, a Firebird. (I guess that was the fast car my Grandad liked. He had a classic Chrysler 300 at the time which went pretty fast.) My dad said Grandad was one of the gentlest people he ever knew. Grandad also apparently came from a very sensitive family. My great grandfather was said to have been terribly sensitive. (& I always thought it came from the Slavic side!)

My Grandmother was the Slavic one. We called her Babu, short for Babushka or Grandmother in Russian. Babu fought her way out of Russia during the Bolshevik revolution, a noble running for her life in the midst of great chaos and violence at the tender age 14. My Grandmother, her sister & her brother left behind lots of family she never saw again, jewels sewn into their hems upon which they had to survive. Somewhere in Turkey some kind soul saved my Grandmother's life by hiding her in some hay while the authorities searched for her. I still remember her telling me how Turkish people are some of her favorite people in the world. Babu and her sister are said to have entered the US on a single passport as "One". It's a good thing. This year I learned if they had only made it to Europe they would have been sent back to Russia! (The Europeans sent the Russian Nobles back to certain death! I am horrified!!!!!) The stories...

...Babu came from the Wolkonsky family. They were Cavalry Officers & Diplomats in service of the Czar. The great writer Tolstoy was a cousin of mine, though I understand Babu did not like her cousin, Tolstoy, at all because their politics differed greatly. That side of the family came to the US from Russia (by way lots of other places between) arrived here in with nothing, worked hard & were well off again within less than a generation.

My Grandmother's story may sound romantic, but it is also one of the sources of terrible dysfunction (somewhat like being a holocaust survivor). My dad won't talk about Babu's early life. I think she tried to tell him torture stories when he was a little boy, or something similar.