Large Fierce Mammal

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In 1983 I started a security consulting company called Whynacht Security & Survival. In 1984 I moved to a house on Lincoln Street in Lunenburg, and the picture on the left shows me thanking the gang that helped me move. That same year, I expanded the company’s services to include alarm monitoring and emergency dispatching for the Lunenburg and Mahone Bay fire departments.

Then, out of the blue, through a convoluted network of people who knew people who were aware of my skills and knowledge in the fields of electronics and communications, I was suddenly offered a management job with the telephone utility that served the Yukon and Northwest Territories. Good money working in an exotic and demanding environment.

To say I went through a period of soul searching is an understatement. In the end, I politely declined and committed myself to growing my business in Nova Scotia. Understand though that this was a VERY close decision. Had I gone the other way, chances are high that I would still be there.

Ryszard's passport photo. Click the picture for a larger view.

Diana and Izabella's joint passport photo. Click the picture for a larger view.

In early 1985, Ryszard Kleszczynski (passport photo at left) departed Poland for a “vacation” in Italy. Once established, he sent for Izabella and Diana, who were able to join him without raising official suspicion because a family friend, also named Ryszard, gave his permission claiming Diana was his child. He was remaining in Poland so the authorities were happy. To the right is their joint passport photo.

The move to Rome, first in the sequence of events that brought Diana and her family to Canada, was entirely financed by Izabella’s cash settlement from the Polish government. If Izabella had not been singled out for attack by one of their soldiers on that fateful day, Diana would, in all likelihood, have grown up in Eastern Europe making it unlikely we would ever have met.

Ryszard and Izabella were married at the Vatican, and the family remained in Rome as political refugees for a year during which time they had opportunity to meet Pope John Paul II. Under the circumstances, much bureaucracy lay between Europe and North America with most Polish families preferring a move either to some part of the United States or, failing that, Ontario. Preferences be damned, when the waiting list curve crossed the one that represented available placement, families went where they were sent.

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When the way finally cleared for them, on 8 October 1986, Diana’s family were relocated to Halifax, Nova Scotia where they resided for a time at the Sterling Hotel, now the Waverly Inn located at 1266 Barrington Street. The composite photo at left shows two images of Diana sitting on the main staircase of the Inn. The image on the left was taken in December 1986, the one on the right in December 2001. The rightmost photo has no bearing on this point in the narrative, but I include it because I love the effect, and this is my blog.

While Ryszard and Izabella studied English through a combination of classroom sessions and watching Sesame Street, Diana entered the Nova Scotian school system speaking only Polish and Italian.

Diana at her first day of school.