If you've ever visited the beautiful historic city of Krakow in Southern Poland, you might be interested in reading on. The extract below will take you on a little time warp back to 1992, the year I moved here. That was barely three years after the end of Communism. The unforgettable atmosphere back then, and [...]
When Father Matthew and I woke up again, at some unknown hour later in the evening, the wind had stopped. I turned my head towards the latticed window, buried deep within the thirteenth-century stone wall, and noted with an unbearable sadness that it had stopped snowing. Phantom hills were now visible, rolling and colliding into [...]
Here's a not-your-average Christmas story. I should know. I was there. The crackling strains of Silent Night filled the room from the antiquated radio. It was a German recording of Silent Night, very close to the original score that had been composed by Franz Xavier Gruber in December 1818. ‘Could you turn it louder?’ I [...]
Here’s a true-story Advent Tale with a difference. The sky was gradually darkening. She sat on the deep window sill in her bedroom, hawk-like in her vigilant perch. Sometimes it seemed to her that from this position she could view the entire world. Clusters of young stars were popping into existence, their neon dust [...]
CHRISTMAS EVE 1992 Kraków, Poland “We’re closed.” That’s what I said to the woman as the chimes by the front door announced her entrance. I didn’t even bother preceding it with a ‘sorry’. It was quarter to two on Christmas Eve and I was just about to lock up shop and go home. Who can [...]
All I want for Christmas is you … and you and you and you … But who, exactly, are you? We all have our different you’s who we long to be with, and who we miss if they’re not with us. In most cases, ‘you’ is our family, including the four-legged members. In my case, the [...]
Wouldn’t it be nice if there were a postal service between heaven and earth? Or between the hereafter and earth, whatever the hereafter entails. I know that everything is digital nowadays, and ‘digital’ is all the younger generation has known. But nonetheless, just imagine this scene. It’s Christmastime. You're feeling nostalgic, and your thoughts are [...]
Wendy Skorupski 