William Penn Life, 2014 (49. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

2014-08-01 / 8. szám

Gathering those Hungarian memories

by Kathy Megyeri

I

just took my husband to the airport for his yearly trip to Hungary to once again immerse himself in his ethnicity. But what makes this trip so different from all past years is that he's carrying a notebook, a small tape recorder and cell phone with video recording capability to capture some memories from Hungarian friends and family that will be priceless to him in the future. What propelled this new behavior in someone who takes his Hungarian heritage for granted? I can only attribute it to the following five reasons:

1. Time is fleeting. When one reaches his mid-70s, time takes on new meaning, especially now that all immediate family members have passed away. Surviving childhood friends and aging relatives are fewer each year, and if memories and photos are not captured soon, they'll be lost forever.

2. The landscape is changing. It was traumatic for my husband to see his childhood home in Budapest razed and replaced with those Communist high-rise panel houses.

So, he held onto the family's small resort home on Lake Balaton. But, it's only a matter of time before that, too, falls victim to time and neglect, since it's not regularly used and lovingly maintained. Some older neighbors there still recall my husband as a young boy, biking around the lake or exploring nearby marshes, pretending he was one of the Three Musketeers. But, most neighbors have died or moved away, and the old cottages are quickly being replaced with duplexes or rental units.

3. There is growing regret for not recording memorable events from past years' visits. For example, in 2011, a 7-foot, 2,400-pound bronze statue of Ronald Reagan was unveiled in Freedom Square in central Budapest, celebrating Reagan's leadership in helping to end Communism. My husband attended the ceremony, along with former U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese, former California Gov. Pete Wilson, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former Reagan speech writer Peggy Noonan, who sat next to my husband at the formal banquet. Today, he wishes he had recorded Noonan's thoughts on Hungary as she had helped frame some of Reagan's most memorable formal foreign policy addresses. But, alas, in the excitement of the moment, he had no notebook, no tape recorder nor video cell phone to record that most memorable evening, which is now lost forever and can't be reconstructed.

4. Others' recorded memories. Nancy Brinker, CEO of Komén for the Cure, recipient of the U.S. Medal of Freedom and Ambassador to Hungary from 2001 to 2003, wrote a New York Times best seller entitled: "Promise Me—How A Sister's Love Launched the Global Movement

to End Breast Cancer." Therein, she offered her insights on Hungary and her reasons for beginning one of the finest Hungarian art collections in the U.S.

After former U.S. Ambassador to Hungary Donald Blinken completed his tour of duty, he and his wife wrote "Vera and the Ambassador, Escape and Return." It is one of the finest books I've read on the process of becoming an Ambassador and the trials and tribulations that one goes through to train an embassy staff to smile, be polite and remain attentive to guests and foreign dignitaries.

14 0 August 2014 0 William Penn Life

Color photos by John E. Lovász • Black & white photos courtesy WPA archives