RITA POLEJEWSKI

Condolences & Memories (1 entries)

• I first met her son, Brian in grade school. Brian had just moved from Prince Rupert to Fall City, Washington, USA, where Polie, "I called him Mr. Polijewski", came back to port after long voyages at sea, I always thought that was cool about him, being a deep gruff voiced mariner engineer, sailing the seven seas. I only saw him one or two times back in grade school, and I was a little scared of him then. I thought he might be kind of like my dad, but when Brian Polejewski moved back from Rupert when I was in middle school, I learned he was a quiet, kind, steady hard working man, in other words nothing like my dad, He was more like my Ma's Swedish Dad, Grampa George. I think Rita must have birthed her son, 'Brian' outdoors in water, because he was like a polliwog, corralling minnows, frogs, salamanders, you name it. Brian could catch it, look at it and let it go. I think that's why we became friends; we liked some of the same things, and he was cool-nice and, funny, sometimes impish, good-time joy-full character. I bet while he was working for the parks department in Winnipeg in his adult life, he found and learned all about the plants and critters of Manitoba first hand and in hand, just as he did here. I'm wondering now, let me say something about Rita, I was at Polejewski home, almost more than my own, throughout my entire teenage life. Both me and Brian would walk right in to each other's houses, after a short knock, and wake the other out of bed on weekends, all summer and snow days too, just to hang-out, or find something to do together. So! Rita saw a lot of me, sometimes more than she probably wanted to, but she wouldn't say that, unless she thought Brian needed some space, she would let me know then. She spoke her mind. Rita, loved sports, especially Hockey, and back in the day, Canada played the USSR, for the GOLD. I could hear her cheers 2 blocks away while I was walking to Brian's. I think, I argued with Rita too much, hell in my later teens, and most my adulthood, I argued with everybody too much. Rita, she liked to argue clean, without hurting people. Just thinking about the way she went about doing that, I find helpful. I'm still learning from her by thinking about the person she was. Her personality was insightful, and if she stung you with her words, she could see it, she knew where my vulnerabilities were. I remember arguing with Brian and it got out of hand and she said, "People that live in glass houses shouldn't throw rocks" I remember walking home, mad, thinking; what did she mean by that? Did she mean; she knows me, where I'm fragile, and that she could throw words, like rocks, through one my windows at anytime, but out her grace, and compassion, she's not, and I should do the same; Or did she mean that I shouldn't throw words like rocks, because I'm fragile and that I could hurt myself with my own words probably both. Anyway as you can see some of the things she said to me, I would spend time thinking about. What she thought mattered to me. She mattered to me. - Posted by: Joshua Nye (Friend of Brian, friend of family.) on: May 02, 2015