A Glimpse of Poland's kindess

My email address is stated in the press releases and homepage of the resort where I am working for, therefore I can easily be tracked and contacted. Not only by the media but sometimes by future guests who need details or other information prior to their arrival. I am in charge for Marketing Communications department and I handle all of the outgoing communications, mostly related to promotions. But, a client- guests can pop you any kind of regards and questions, so it is not really that limited.

There’s this couple from Poland. They emailed me like a few weeks before their arrival date- with their diet concern. They can only eat black-graham bread, and they are also lactose intolerant. 

So I forward the email to our Executive Chef who immediately responds that we don’t have that specific kind but will prepare them before the couple arrived. I reply the couple’s email saying the same, and ensuring their diet will be noted as our concern. Just that simple. I also send a reminder to Chef a week before the guest arrived.

But I didn’t realize that the small gesture mean so much to them. On the 7^th day of their stay, the couple , Mr and Mrs. Janusz Kurek , (probably at their 60’s) walked into my office and pay their courtesy. It was a sweet visit from such a lovely couple. They gave me a little coffee table book about Poland, a CD album of a young accordion player (Mr. Kurek turns out to be a famous musician in Poland, own a Jazz club, performed with Louis Armstrong and the accordion artist is his student), and a cute postcard with a picture of a painting by Tomasz Setowski (the exact same painting is hanging on the wall of Mr. Kurek’s Jazz club). I literally think it was just too much! They are sooooooo kind and I am more than just touched. Books, music and art are my main interest and they miraculously wrap them all in the package. It's like they know me for a long time before... And of course...their visit made my day...

Life In A Jar

insert: Irena Sendler (15 February 1910 – 12 May 2008)

Source: The Prize does not always go to the most deserving.

There was a lady named Irena. During WWII, Irena, got permission to work in the Warsaw Ghetto, as a Plumbing/Sewer specialist. She had an 'ulterior motive' ... She KNEW what the Nazi's plans were for the Jews. Irena smuggled infants out in the bottom of the tool box she carried and she carried in the back of her truck a burlap sack, (for larger kids..) She also had a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto. The soldiers of course wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking covered the kids/infants noises.. During her time of doing this, she managed to smuggle out and save 2500 kids/infants. She was caught, and the Nazi's broke both her legs, arms and beat her severely. Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she smuggled out and kept them in a glass jar, buried under a tree in her back yard. After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived it and reunited the family. Most had been gassed. Those kids she helped got placed into foster family homes or adopted. 

In 2007, Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize ... She was not selected. 

Al Gore won, for a slide show on Global Warming.

Anna Paquin plays young Sendler in "Life in a Jar"