Bartók Béla, ifj.: Chronicles of Béla Bartók's Life (Budapest, 2021)
Last Journey Home, “… But For Good” (1988)
1988 CHRONICLES OF BÉLA BARTOK'S LIFE Church. The chief pastor was my old friend, Donald Harrington; his Hungarian wife recited a few poems by Domokos Szilágyi; our Consul General gave the ceremonial speech. My brother and I both spoke, and our UN representative Ferenc Esztergályos also gave a speech. Piano pieces were performed by pianist Robert Schwartz. 21 June - In the evening we traveled to Tarrytown, a small town in the vicinity of the cemetery, and we ordered the cemetery farewell reception for the next day. According to the laws of the United States, family members cannot be present at the exhumation (!) but on the morning of 22 June we still went to the cemetery to see what happens. Unfortunately the grave had already been opened, its contents taken into the mortuary, and to our great shock, it turned out that it was just a wooden coffin that had fallen apart. Luckily, the remains were identified, but since the ship was to leave on the 25th, we had to act very quickly, to have a metal coffin made and then a wooden box covering it, to place the bones in a dignified manner, to call the French Consul General from New York to be present at the sealing, necessary for the transit in France, and to inform our embassy in Bonn and the Budapest funeral company about the dimensions of the chest to inspect the coffin car and the already built burial chamber. At the same time, the American farewell took place at the tomb which remained our property and where we placed a bilingual memorial plaque stating that this had been Béla Bartoks first resting place. Speeches were given at the grave by Thomas Simons, Chief of Foreign Affairs on behalf of the United States, Chack Lesnik on behalf of the City of New York, Consul General Dr György Bánlaki on behalf of Hungary, and then we gave a reception to the guests. 25 June - In New York we placed the coffin in a spacious hall on board the ship “Queen Elizabeth 2” being moored to dock No 92, then we said goodbye to the Consul General and left for Europe at 3 p.m. 510
