How far would you go for love? Across town? To church? Around the world? I guess most of us don’t really know until we are faced with the decision. Then as Babcia says, you just know. Love is hope, and I think we are compelled to do whatever it takes to have that hope in our hearts. It is a lifetime of tomorrows that we just can’t wait to begin. So we follow it, we chase it, we go wherever it takes us, consequences be damned.

In the early 1970’s Babcia took that leap. Her heart had found love and with the family they had begun, she and Poppy left Chicago for West Virginia. She may as well have left for another planet. Her life as she knew it would change forever. There are the obvious differences. Chicago is a big city with lots of lights, people, opportunities, conveniences, and attractions. They packed up that U-Haul and she headed for a quieter, less populated, more rural life without a second thought. She had no idea what was in store, only that she was keeping her family together and she was by her husband’s side as he journeyed home. In her mind, that was where she belonged.

Babcia’s life had begun far from both Chicago and West Virginia, in Poland. She was born to Polish parents in Dziemiany, Poland. The first 15 years of her life were spent there; first with her parents and family, and then with her aunts and one brother once the rest left to escape Nazi terrorism. The two younger children were left behind in an effort to save them from what they believed would be certain death. At 15 she finally traveled to the United States to be reunited with her family who had made it to Chicago by that time. In Chicago, she learned how to do everything all over again. She learned to speak English, she learned how a young lady should dress and behave. She learned a trade and went to work. She also learned how to have fun and to enjoy life. She learned how to have a social life along with the ins and outs of dating from her sisters. Eventually she met my father, fell in love, and traveled to West Virginia with him. By the time she was in her early 30’s she had traveled more than most people her age and had experienced things I can only imagine. She has lived three very different lives in one lifetime.

The last part of her journey has been the longest, as she’s been in West Virginia for over 40 years. She met and grew to love my dad’s family. She made friends of her own. She put down roots and grew a life for her family. I’ve asked her if she would ever consider going back to Chicago or leaving West Virginia. She says no, that West Virginia is her home now. She knows the secret. Home is a place, but it’s not on a map or a globe. Home is where the people you love are. Home is where your most treasured memories are. West Virginia became her home and she became a West Virginian when she decided to raise her family there and to stand by her husband. She is a Polebilly in the truest form. If I am the Polebilly Princess, she is the matriarch, the Polebilly Queen.

I guess we don’t yearn to travel and search for a place so much as we yearn to find the place where someone we love is. Once we find them in that place and recognize that, we know we are home. We search for love, and in doing that, we find our home.