Family Trivia

My Mom’s great-grandfather—on her father’s father’s side—has set up the original Institute for Smallpox Vaccination in Warsaw, when Poland was still partitioned between Russia, Austria and Germany. It was a very successful family business, popular because the occupying power (Russia) did not provide a public vaccination service.

My other Great-grandfather—on my maternal grandmother’s side—was Russian. He travelled to Russia during the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, and subsequently died in one of Stalin’s purges.

My Mother’s father was the founder, and Editor-In-Chief for many years, of a successful health education magazine Zdrowie (“Health” in Polish) that is still in print as of today. I heard that the initial issue was written and illustrated as a cooperative effort of many members of my extended family.

My Father, Grzegorz Moryciński, was a fine artist, a painter. He spent the years of Second World War as a small child in Siberia. He was rounded up and sent to Abakan near Irkutsk, along with his mother and grandmother. I am not sure what was the fate of his father, but I know that he survived the war.

My Mother worked as a tour organizer for artistic groups - an impresario. Her work sent her to various foreign countries, sometimes beyond the Iron Curtain. She brought with her many gifts and gadgets. They gave me a distinct impression that the West is waay ahead of Poland in terms of availability and quality of goods available in stores.