William Penn Life, 2011 (46. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

2011-05-01 / 5. szám

My surrogate Magyar grandparents

A FEW MONTHS AGO, I lamented that my siblings and I were shortchanged in not having a full set of American- Hungarian grandparents with which to share our experiences growing up. I really felt sorry not only for myself but also for my brother, sister and parents as well.

Now, you may ask: "How did my parents become part of this equation of being shortchanged?" The answer is quite simple. Each of our lives take various paths. Just like our personalities, our paths are different. The final destination may be the same, but the way we get there and how we enjoy the trip is what is important. Just like me, my parents would have loved to have Grampa and Gramma Cseh there to share the experience witnessing our physical and mental growth.

My Nagymama Cseh was an accomplished pianist.

She played not only the piano but the church organ as well. One of her early keyboard teachers was the late Franciscan Father Mészáros. He implored her to go to the Julliard School of Music to further her musical ambitions. Fortunately for us, she had met my grandfather, and they were married at the old St. Stephen of Hungary Church in Youngstown. But, what if she would have not married my gramps? Would she have moved to New York? Would she have become a concert virtuoso like Endre Watts? Who knows? The disappointment was not in any lost potential of her career but the shortchanging of the experience of what was accessible to her. Not knowing her grandchildren, and that experience with them, would have created a void in her life that even the possibility of musical stardom could not fill.

I recently learned from my Grand Aunt Olga that her father—my Great-grandfather Cseh—was an immensely

Andrew and Jean Silvers Check (center) on their wedding day, with their parents, Mihály and Emmerencia Check (left) and Bernice and Joseph Silvers (right).

proud Hungarian and American. I have inherited one of his old lapel pins. This Magyar wardrobe embellishment is dated 1892, and I do not know what organization it was from. All I know is that he wore it proudly to Hungarian functions, such as Youngstown's Magyar Nap.

He was so proud of his heritage that he ponied up seed money to help buy and establish a Hungarian club. He and four other local men were the founding fathers of the Magyar Haz of Campbell, Ohio. Ironically, he was the club's first president, and my father was it's last. Dwindling membership and high maintenance costs resulted in the clubhouse being sold and the organization dissolved in the late 1980's. Although logistically impossible, I wish they all could have been here now to see me writing Tibor's Take or my sister creating her wordsearch puzzles in William Penn Life. The shared experiences of my forbearers and siblings is merely a foregone conclusion.

My brother Endre II has been playing his 1894 Schun-Tibor's Take with Tibor Check, Jr.

Did you know they're Hungarian?

Did you know Martina Hingis has a Hungarian father?

The now-retired tennis star was born in 1980 in Kassa, Slovakia. Her father Karoly and her mother Melanie Molitorova (who is Czech) were tennis professionals and instructors. When Martina was six years of age, her parents divorced and she accompanied her mother to live in Switzerland.

As a teenager, Hingis excelled in local competitions and quickly moved up the ladder of success to become a major professional in tennis. She was ranked as the best woman tennis player for almost five years. Hingis won five Grand Slam singles titles and nine Grand Slam doubles titles. She earned more than $20 million in prize money.

Her style of play was more tactical as opposed to the more physically powerful style of many of today’s tennis stars. She retired in 2003 following a series of injuries, but returned to play on the World Team Tennis circuit in 2005. She returned to the World Tennis Association tour in 2006, but, in 2008, received a two-year ban from the International Tennis Federation after testing positive for cocaine. She played on a limited basis throughout 2010, but has said she will not be returning to the tour.

In December 2010, she married a French professional horseman in an intimate ceremony in Paris.

8 0 May 2011 0 William Penn Life