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    A Letter to my Grandchildren
    A Letter to my Grandchildren
    A Letter to my Grandchildren
    Ebook178 pages1 hour

    A Letter to my Grandchildren

    By Maria Sharp

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    About this ebook

    Maria Sharp was born Maria Zdenka Besan in Croatia in 1941, just after the Nazis had invaded Yugoslavia, and as a young child she witnessed “events that imprinted themselves upon my soul forever”. At the age of nine she emigrated to the USA and struggled along with her parents to succeed in the “New World”. Years later she married an American and has since written this book for her two grandchildren to explain to them “who they are and how they came to be”. The book paints a warm and moving picture of life in Croatia in the first half of the 20th century. It then goes on to describe the horrors of World War II and the subsequent devastating aftermath brought on by the communist regime.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMereo Books
    Release dateMay 9, 2017
    ISBN9781861516657
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      A Letter to my Grandchildren - Maria Sharp

      Copyright © 2017 by Maria (Mary) Zdenka Besan Sharp

      Maria (Mary) Zdenka Besan Sharp has asserted her right under the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

      Published by Mereo

      Mereo is an imprint of Memoirs Publishing

      25 Market Place, Cirencester, Gloucestershire GL7 2NX, England

      Tel: 01285 640485, Email: info@mereobooks.com

      www.memoirspublishing.com or www.mereobooks.com

      Read all about us at www.memoirspublishing.com.

      See more about book writing on our blog www.bookwriting.co.

      Follow us on twitter.com/memoirs books

      Or twitter.com/MereoBooks

      Join us on facebook.com/MemoirsPublishing

      Or facebook.com/MereoBooks

      A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

      This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not by way of trade or otherwise be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover, other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition, including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

      ISBN: 978-1-86151-665-7

      IN LOVING MEMORY OF MY PARENTS

      Written by Maria (Mary) Zdenka Besan Sharp (aka Nunny) between September 2012 and November 2013. With many thanks to my husband, Robert Sharp, for his patience and assistance.

      Guide to Some of the Names in the Memoir

      MATTHEW and ANIKA—author’s grandchildren

      NUNNY—Author’s nickname to her grandchildren

      GRANDPA— Author’s father (Stjepan/Stefan Besan)

      GRANDAD— Author’s husband (Robert/Bob Sharp—grandfather of Matthew and Anika) DEMEDI— Author’s mother (Ana/Anka Sostar Besan)

      GROSSA—Author’s paternal grandmother (Katarina Reich Besan)

      BABA— Author’s maternal grandmother (Marija Vucenic Sostar)

      TETA STEFA Author’s aunt (Grandpa’s sister)

      GJURO—Demedi’s brother

      ZVONKO—Gjuro’s son (Demedi’s nephew)

      SEKA—Author’s cousin (Teta Stefa’s younger daughter)

      THE SHUSTERS—Demedi’s cousins in Aliquippa, PA

      THE BELACICS—Croatian friends and employers in Akron, OH

      DAVID—Author’s son (father of Matthew and Anika)

      BORIS—Author’s cousin (Teta Stefa’s grandson)

      MARIA (Mary) ZDENKA BESAN SHARP (aka Nunny)—Author

      Contents

      Introduction

      1 Grandpa (My father)

      2 Demedi (My mother)

      3 Demedi and Grandpa

      4 The War in Croatia

      5 The Communist Regime

      6 The New World

      7 Grandad (My husband)

      8 Haig Ferguson (Our son and life in England)

      9 Ann Arbor (Life and Struggles)

      Epilogue

      ATTRIBUTIONS

      Unless otherwise noted, all pictures and figures included in this memoir are the author’s own. The following are attributed to Wikimedia Commons:

      Map of the former Yugoslavia, map of the Kingdom of Croatia and Croatian Coat of Arms — introductory pages

      Croatian Flag – introductory pages

      Cakovec Castle – Page 2

      Map of Croatia – Page 24

      Jelacic Square – Page 25

      St. Stephen’s Cathedral – Page 31

      Photos of Presidents Kennedy and Nixon – Page 48

      Photo of President Kennedy Lying in State – Page 52

      COVER: Centre photo - author arriving in New York, March 1951

      INTRODUCTION

      CROATIA

      Croatia first became an independent kingdom in the year 925 AD when Tomislav I was proclaimed ruler of the area, which in those days consisted of two former Roman provinces known as Pannonia and Dalmatia. It remained sovereign until 1102 when, due to the lack of a male heir, Croatia joined in a union with Hungary. In 1527, the Hungarian kingdom was crushed by the Ottoman Turks in the Battle of Mohacs, and the Croatian Assembly invited the Habsburg Dynasty to come to the Croatian throne. When the Austrians and Hungarians formed the Dual Monarchy in 1867, Croatia once again came under the direct control of Hungary, where it remained until the end of World War I in 1918, when it was handed over to Serbia as spoils of war. Eventually it became part of Yugoslavia, along with Slovenia, Macedonia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia. In April 1941, during the height of the Second World War, Croatia proclaimed its sovereignty and became an independent state until the end of that war, when it was once again made part of Yugoslavia. In the 1990s, Croatia fought a bitter civil war against Serbian control and gained its independence in 1995. It is now officially known as the Republic of Croatia or simply Hrvatska.

      Today (2013), Croatia has a population of approximately 4.4 million. Its capital city, Zagreb, where almost one quarter of the people live, is located in the north central part of the country. The language spoken is Hrvatski (Croatian) – a Slavic tongue closely related to Russian. Nearly 90% of the people are baptized Roman Catholic. With its beautiful Dalmatian coast, tourism is one of the main industries of Croatia.

      The Shusters of Aliquippa

      The Shusters were related to Demedi through her father, Franjo Sostar. Franjo and his brother, Ivan Shuster (Sostar), emigrated together to the US in the early 1900s. Ivan was married to Rose (Strina). He and Rose had five children – John (who died in his teens), Jenny, Emil (Milan) Ann (Red) and Mary Ann (Margie).

      The Belacics of Akron

      The Belacics were a Croatian family not related by blood to either Demedi or Grandpa. Frank Belacic Sr. was acquainted with Demedi’s father in the early 1900’s. Frank Sr. was married to Barbara (Mrs). They had four sons – John, Matthew (Smokey), Frankie, and Joe. They also had a daughter named Mary. (Another daughter, Ann, died at the age of four.)

      The Three Emils

      Emil – Grandpa’s son (Nunny’s half brother); Emil (Milan) Shuster – Strina’s son (Demedi’s cousin); Emil Hamad – the man who bought the restaurant where Demedi and Grandpa worked in Akron.

      A Letter To My Grandchildren

      My dearest Matthew and Anika,

      I, Nunny, am writing this to you so that one day when I am no longer here, you may better understand who you are and how you came to be.

      As you know I was not born in America, but rather I came into this world on either the 16th or 17th (more about this later) of October in 1941 in a little village called Vrapce, just a few miles west of Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. It was a bitter fall day, and the winter which followed was one of the coldest in modern history for that part of the world (at least so I was told). The world was embroiled in a war which was to last another four years, and I became witness to events that imprinted themselves on my soul forever.

      But before I continue with this tale, I need to tell you about my parents—your great grandparents, Demedi and Grandpa, as your Daddy called them. Their story is, in many ways, even more compelling and needs to be told.

      Matthew and Anika on their first day at school, September 2013

      GRANDPA

      My (Nunny’s) Father

      Grandpa (Stjepan Besan) was born in 1905 in a small town called Cakovec, on the Hungarian border with Croatia. His mother, Katarina Reich (whom I knew as Grossa), gave birth to him when she was only 15. By the time Stjepan (known as Stefan) was about two years old, Katarina married Vid Besan (the father of her son) who avowed that Stefan was his own. (Since Katarina, pregnant and unmarried, was dismissed from the local count’s cleaning staff after having been given a handsome purse, stories abounded about her child’s paternity, and some claimed that little Stefan was the Count’s own son and heir.) Upon their marriage, Vid and Katarina had another child, Stefa– later known to me as Teta (Aunt) Stefa.

      Life was relatively good for a short while. Vid was an officer in Emperor Franz Joseph’s army and the family lived together on a military base in Cakovec. According to Grossa, they were relatively happy; they had enough to eat and drink, and the children were kept warm and adequately clothed. Then tragedy struck. Vid, who was an alcoholic, died suddenly of a heart attack. Immediately, life for this family changed forever. Grossa and her two young children were evicted from the military barracks; they were penniless and cold and had nowhere to go.

      Grandpa (center) flanked by his father Vid Besan and mother (Grossa) in Cakovec, 1910

      Cakovec Castle, where Grossa worked as a young girl (photo by Silverije) (CC BY-SA 3.0)

      After a few weeks, Katarina and her children were taken in by a wealthy family in need of a male playmate for their young son who was dying of scarlet fever. So Katarina and little

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