It begins with a huge house beyond the wheat fields in the foothills of the Tatras, a mansion I should say, with a ballroom on the second floor. The communists confiscated it during the Slavic occupation so it is no longer there or maybe it still is…at least in the faded memory of those who ushered forth down thru the ages from its long since passed colorful occupants.
The Kostelnicek manor, a stronghold in the village of Spiska Stara Ves, enlisted for generations the servitude of many in their home and fields. In 1907, against the backdrop of grand parties with society’s elite, Anna Orlovska, the house maid, dared to dance with Janov, the Kostelnicek’s first-born son, in their illustrious ballroom. The shock was doubly impacting for though first-born sons were so obliged, Janov felt no longer bound by the duty of future priesthood.
Anna and Janov, in each their desire to escape the bonds of society’s rigid rules, settled and raised a family of nine in America. They now have many descendants whose freedoms no doubt are indebted to their courageous move. They are the first of our “souls in sunflowers.”
Back in Europe, the families were not as fortunate. The rising twin tides of fascism and communism saw to that. With the onset of WWII, Anton, the patriarch of the Kostelnicek mansion, along with his wife Maria, hid Anna’s relatives in the big house. Alas, in 1939 Anna’s grandfather, among others, were flushed out and shot down in front of the suffering mansion. Zdedush Barnas, a kindly old full bearded servant who had raised his granddaughter, was now violently taken away. Veronica Barnas, Anna’s grandmother, was deported to Warsaw where she perished in a ghetto. Anton and Maria, despite their moneyed leverage in the Nazi years, risked a great deal to hide their lesser class in-laws. Anna’s grandparents for sure were the gravest victims of the loss of human liberty. These four are among our “souls in sunflowers.”
With the final devastation of WWII came the opportunistic spread of communism. Stefan Kostelnicek, youngest son of Anton and Maria, was a well-known artist and poet who greatly defended democracy in those waning years of freedom in Slovakia. In 1949, he was taken to outer Siberia and shot. He lives on in the tallest sunflower among our “souls in sunflowers.”
