I received my GED in 1955 in Austin and became an American citizen on June 15,1956 in Austin.  I married Henrietta (Henri) Kouba of Shiner, Texas in 1958.  She is a registered nurse who graduated from Seton School of Nursing in Austin and we have four children: Steve (and his wife Melissa), Ron, Sue and Tom. Another son, John died as an infant.
I retired in Austin, Texas in 1975 where I worked as a carpenter building custom homes until I fell sixteen feet off a ladder and sustained severe injuries to both feet that caused me to retire again in 1980.  We have returned to Poland twice, once during the communist rule and then after the fall of communism. We've also returned to Germany several times. After the fall of the Berlin Wall we visited Mrs. Brandt in Schwanefeld. Mrs. Brandt is the daughter-in-law of the blacksmith that Father worked for as a slave, she took us into the now idle blacksmith shop and we got to see some of Father's work that was still in the shop.
I cannot imagine what my life would be like without my parent's persistence and the goodwill of Walter and Kathryn Baugh and the people of Bennington, Kansas.

Written By,


Metz Lipiec April 2000



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