I returned to Berlin and thought that, if only for the moment, the worst was over and that I could continue my studio work. Two days later, I received a call that my grandma in Poland was in the intensive care unit, in an artificial coma – things seemed to be repeating. My guilty conscience returned. Why didn’t we just speak on the phone, at least for a moment? My grandma is 93 years old, so every day she’s healthy and conscious is a gift. Although I knew that a day like this would come, it saddened me deeply. She’s one of the most important people in my life. She taught me so much: writing, speaking and reading Polish, cooking, singing together, history, jokes and most importantly, her cosmopolitan view, the deep love and high respect towards all humans, animals, and plants.
The next morning, I took the Berlin-Warszawa-Express to Poland. My grandma had a stroke and again, the doctors couldn’t tell us much. After a week they stopped giving her sleep-inducing drugs and once more, we needed to be patient. Two days passed and she seemed absent. All of a sudden, she started singing these old Polish partisan songs that she taught me and we joined in, with tears in our eyes. I was so touched, again!
Stream: Maryla Rodowicz – Wsiąść do pociągu byle jakiego (a song that Daniela and her grandmother have sung together)
Our hopes were dashed. She had a brain damage and didn’t remember me, nor anybody else of her loved ones. Furthermore, she was mixing up nouns, which made it harder to have a conversation. The frontal part of her brain suffered from a circulatory disturbance, meaning that the memory and speech center are affected. I stayed for three weeks and every single day we visited her, she started singing. She remembered all the lyrics and melodies and every single time I was deeply impressed. Maybe there is a simple, scientific explanation for these two strong examples, but however, for me personally, it represented a kind of magic. The power of music – so essential, so real and so pure!
In loving memory of Rozalia Malinowska. She was born on the 20th of August 1923 in Suwałki, Poland. In 1939, she was taken as a forced laborer in Germany and worked there until the end of World War II. She passed away on the 4th of June 2017 in Lublin, Poland.
