Wednesday walk down the memory lane of my uncle Zygmunt

Thursday, 7th of December 2023 [104]

Today I will take you on a little different walk. Of course, we’ll visit many beautiful places and see many beautiful pictures, but it won’t be the usual type of walk I posted before in #WednesdayWalk by @tattoodjay . I hope you guys don’t mind a little twist.

I started writing this yesterday, on the 6th of December, which was of course Wednesday, but I gor so sleepy that I didn’t manage to finish it. In Poland 6th of December is a Santa Claus day. Especially exciting for children I may add. As an adult I don’t usually notice that day much anymore, but I guess memories are flashing back, as I sit down to writing this post.

It’s been 10 days since I received shocking news from my family in Poland. My uncle, together with auntie, my cousin and her daughter went for a walk around the block, during which he fainted, fell on the hedge and hasn’t regained his consciousness since.

Strangers were helping reanimate my uncle, ambulance arrived very fast. He received 8 adrenaline injections and was taken to the hospital and had been in clinically induced coma for 10 days now. Auntie told me he opened his eyes slightly for a few minutes on Monday, after which they were closed again.

Out of my 4 aunties, auntie Teresa is my absolute favourite. She’s one of 3 sisters of my mum and she married a Polish army soldier, uncle Zygmunt, who later become a major. On the picture below he’s on the far right. Such a sweet young boy he was!

He retired good few years ago, which gave hime plenty of time for his passion - fishing. Although I must say that in the last year or two his health was not in the best condition and he didn’t go fishing as much as before.

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He wispered his worries about his health to my ear when I visited them last year. Just like he always did. He always told me more than anyone else and I remember once I got him in trouble when I told auntie about his secret stash, which I never knew was for my ears only.

Ever since then I kept all our conversations to myself. Uncle felt comforable sharing various of his secrets with me and I wanted him to know that he can. I like my uncle a lot. He’s a very intelligent guy, but sadly not very appreciated by his daughters or wife (my auntie).

I get it, we all have our traumas and what happens behind the closed doors of each family only that family really knows. To me however, uncle has always been good and I made sure to always spend time chatting to him whenever I visit them. Oftentimes while enjoying a cigarette on their balcony.

We could talk about technologies, cars, bikes, travels, newest apps, finances. Most of these things he couldn’t talk about with any other women in our family. Some of those things he would show me made absolutely no sense, but I looked anyway, cause all he wanted was some genuine insterest. Someone to talk to and since I’m apparently an engineer, I should really know what I’m looking at, right?

His daughters sometimes moaned that he likes me more than he liked them 😉 His granddaughters however he loves with all his heart ever since their arrival 6 years ago. Both of my cousins got pregnant at roughly the same time and both gave birth to beautiful daughters. I can tell by what he shows me in his phone. Back in a day there were random pictures of various tech he got excited about. These days it’s mainly pictures of his granddaughters.

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During one of my visits uncle Zygmunt showed me some beautiful sunset picture he took during his fishing trip. That’s the cover picture of this article.

I loved it and showed him some of my pictures from the app I was using back then (Tsu) and told him I earn some money from posting them. That’s when he got the memory card out and gave it to me to make a copy of all his pictures.

‘Take them all and use them. I’ll be happy if they have some good purpose’ he said.

That was a few years ago now. I have a folder on my laptop titled ‘Zdjecia Zygmunta’ and I look at it every now and again, but so far I haven’t used any of them. Hearing the sad news about uncle Zygmunt being in a coma made me open that folder again and write this post.

There are so many beautiful captures in his collection and I really want to put them to a good use. This evening I’ll embark on a long car journey to Poland. Usually I would stop just after crossing a German border. That where many members of my family live and out of them all I usually stop at auntie Teresa and uncle Zygmunt’s place in Żagań to have some rest and spend some time with them.

This time round I won’t be going to Żagań, because both of them are currently in Toruń, visiting my cousin Aneta. Except that only auntie is at my cousin’s place, why poor uncle Zygmunt is in the hospital. Toruń is not at all along my route to my parents house, hence why I’ve always denied my cousin’s invitation to visit her in their place. It was an extra journey I really didn’t fancy.

This time however is very different. I might or might not have another opportunity to see my uncle Zygmunt again. Simiarly to why I decided to go home for Christmas. My parents are getting older and I wouldn’t want to regret the fact that I didn’t make an effort to spend Christmas with them for over 10 years. I want to appreciate them while they’re still here.

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Whether my uncle will be aware that I’m visiting him or not, I decided to make that extra journey across Poland to see him. Who knows, I might even be lucky to see him waking up from a coma? That would surely be the best Christmas gift for me and the rest of Sikora’s family.

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Scrolling by uncles pictures I found that his way of photographing is not that different than mine’s. He has a good eye for beauty and he also likes to capture objects in motion. Below, I show you a series of captures of the boat he watched coming and going. I really like that and have a few series like this of my own too.

Enjoy and send my uncle Zygmunt some good vibes 😍

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Until next time 💙

Camera:	unknown mobile camera
Photographer:	Uncle Zygmunt