Many people have asked about my little metal plaque in my car...it has alot of sentimental value and an amazing story and have been asked to share it...
This is the story
of a small metal plaque. It’s like any other trinket you may have
in your car, whether it is a lucky Disney sticker from high school or
the epic fuzzy dice hanging on your rear view mirror. So with that in
mind, we all have something in our car that we keep in our car that
is special.
My item is different though. On one
side it is decorative with swirls and 2 small sticker of Joseph
carrying Jesus on his shoulder and one of the Virgin Mary in her
shining gold attire. It’s thin like a wafer and has been snapped
in half but it was been glued before and I have has the pleasure in re-gluing it back together. My story begins when I visited my family
in Łódź, Poland, one summer. I was 9 and was spending time with
my Grandpa Henrick on his patio of his flat. Our conversations were
always interesting and everlasting with one in particular being the
origin of my metal object.
One breezy summer while drinking our
hot tea, because that’s what Pollacks’ do…drink hot tea year
round; I was going through my Grandpa’s sweater pocket and found
this old plaque. I asked him what it was and since the high relief
writing was in Polish I needed him to read it to me. He smiled and
recited a prayer, a driver’s prayer more specific for the traveling
man. He had told me that back in 1945, he was still a doctor, he was assigned to work at a small hospital in Gliwice. It is now called Veto-Med, but still looks just as it did before. He had a patient who was a metal worker named Jacek Beksinski.of
the One of the most talented men he has ever met. He was in the hospital for a
burn he had gotten from working and he was assisting him.
One day they were trading stories about travel. Grandpa had told Mr. Beksinski that he changes hospitals every year and Mr. Beksinski shares that he travels from 3 to 10 hours to metal shops for work. Mr. Beksinski sighed and said he was tired of all the traveling and at his age he just wanted to stay home and spend time with his family. he just wanted to stay home and spend some time with his
family. My grandpa agreed with him, he has to pick up his family of five and move every year. A couple of days later, Mr. Beksinski returned to the hospital and met with grandpa to give him a gift. Mr. Beksinski told him that his prayers
have been answered and that he was hired at the Zamet Budowa Maszyn in the town of Tarnowskie Gory as a perminet employee. No more traveling for this old man!
My Grandpa being the happy guy congratulated him and hugged him but
he asked…
”We’ll I’m happy for you and your family but what does
this plaque have to do with traveling?"
“I made this for myself after I had
almost first had an accident in Gdansk. There was a metal shop
that needed help so I left around 3am to save time but, I started
dosing off to sleep…next thing I wake up and I’m driving in a
ditch and almost hit a tree. I realized I could have been stranded or
worse died on impact. I didn’t want that on my family so I made
this plaque from scrap metal and stickers from my daughter’s Easter
activities booklet. Now that I don’t travel, I want to give this to
you…let your travels keep you safe as they did mine.”
My Grandpa appreciated his gesture and
kept the plaque in his pocket. He told me when he first got it that
he thought the notion of a metal plaque keeping you safe was silly.
But he said one day he was driving and right when the light turned
green he sneezed so he didn’t notice the light. Apparently, a
driver ran the light and if he didn’t sneeze he would have been a
goner for sure. I told my Grandpa, that everyone sneezes and that’s
a coincidence. He said that’s what he thought at first but there
has been times were he has never been sleepy on the road driving
overnight with grandma and has almost hit deer but somehow the deer
keep going and he barely kinked it.
I smile and roll my eyes and twirl the
plaque in my hand, while looking at the decorative features. He tells
me since I will be flying back that I should take the plaque home
with me and when I’m old enough to drive to keep it on me. I
appreciated the new item I get to bring back to show my friends, but
not so gung hoe about telling them that it supposedly has supernatural powers.
When packing up to leave back for home,
I remember packing my things and hesitating putting my little metal
plaque in my suitcase. I decided to humor my Grandpa and put it in my
coat pocket to show him I’ll be thinking about him on the plane.
I’m glad I did because 7 hours into our flight our plane went into
a storm and we began to free fall from the sky. It felt like the Roller Coaster of Death, the lights were flickering on and off. I looked at the woman next to me and she had tears rolling down her face praying for God's mercy. I remember squeezing
tight my little plaque and praying, “Please let a miracle help us
was it did, Mr. Beksinski and Grandpa! Please!”
And it worked; we started gaining
altitude after we got out of the worst part of the storm. I remember
people cheering and praising for God’s help and I thought to
myself… “What were the chances of us not making it if I hadn’t
had that in my hand? Or would it even worked if I had left it in my
big duffle bag, under the plane? I guess I’m never know whether the
power of my little plaque is real or not, but I can say that if I
hadn’t gone snooping my Grandpa’s sweater …that I wouldn’t
have a special story to share with the world.
