We are in possession of several letters that some cousins in Lithuania wrote to my grandfather, Peter Mardosa, in New York just before and after Lithuania gained independence in 1990.  Some bear the Soviet CCCP stamp (with Lenin’s picture), while later letters show a post-liberation “Lietuva” stamp.

My mother says that Grandpa found it frustrating to correspond with the Lithuanian cousins, since they often asked that he send them things, like blue jeans.  I can hardly imagine the deprivations that the cousins suffered under Soviet occupation and can also imagine that this situation was hard for those who had made it to the U.S.

After Peter died in 1985 and his wife, Mary, moved to Texas to live with us, these cousins also exchanged letters with my dad, John D. McCoy, who was only related by marriage.  I guess Dad’s chatty nature persuaded him to pick up the torch to let the cousins know that Mary had left New York.  Here’s a pic of my dad, who is not Lithuanian at all, on a visit to Seattle.

Dad at the Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle

In recent weeks, I wonder if he picked up a piece of the language, though.  All my life, he jokingly said something was “right cha” to mean “right here”.  As I’ve just learned, “čia” means “here” in Lithuanian, pronounced just the way my dad always did.  Did the New York cousins teach him that?

We miss you, dad.