Simona – as she said – saw me for the first time about ten years earlier, as a seventeen-year-old girl (I was thirteen years older than her). While sitting in her room in Kossakówka, she heard her mother’s voice, sitting in front of the TV: “Simona, come and see, he would be a great guy for you!”
A reportage from my Warsaw studio was just shown. Against the background of impressive aquariums, I presented my albums and games with my roommates – a pair of black cats, a raccoon, a jackdaw and an owl. Simona, fascinated by animals since childhood, then took care of – in the company of pet dogs – a falcon, a young oriole and stick insects.
The case was forgotten. Simona finished her biology studies, defended her master’s thesis on the sounds made by fish, and wanting to become independent as soon as possible, she started looking for a job. She loved the mountains, but she couldn’t find her dream job in the Tatra Mountains. She was offered the position of curator of a natural museum organized in the Bieszczady Mountains, but it would only be available in two years. For now, she started working at the post office. She found out that there was a possibility of employment at the Mammal Research Institute in Białowieża, so first, to make it faster, with a ticket provided by her mother, she took a plane to Warsaw, and then took a train to the forest capital of Poland.
At first, she lived in a corner in a sub-tenant’s room, dreaming of living in the forest. Until once, a friendly, romantic couple – Barbara, a Polish teacher (Ewa among her friends) and Bishop Jacek Wysmułek, a forester – took her on a night sleigh trip. They drove through the strict reserve in the glow of torches. Among the colonnade of trees of different ages, of sizes not found anywhere else, there were black tree trunks crossed by ceilings. Tawny owls were calling, and the path was marked by the tracks of eternal autochthons – deer, roe deer, wild boars, martens, lynxes. The primeval forest cast a spell.
At the mouth of a dark tunnel leading through an old spruce forest, a clearing hidden in the forest glowed with the moonlight. Against the background of spruces and oaks, in the middle, under the snow-covered roof, stood a picturesque, elongated log house with long porches at the gables. He looked at Simona through the white-rimmed windows. She fell in love with him at first sight. It was a forester’s lodge called Dziedzinka. Jacek, the forester, had a small office room in the attic, which he rarely used. She asked him to give her the key. She wanted to live alone for a while, in such a wonderful place. For a few weeks she commuted to work on skis or by bike. She went to negotiate with the director of the Park…
Photo by Lech Wilczek, from the album ‘Meeting with Simona Kossak’ from 2012 Photo Agnieszka Sadowska / Agencja Wyborcza.pl
My love affair with the Białowieża Forest dates back to my childhood. My wonderful, caring brother Edward, nine years older than me, who was my teacher and authority in matters of nature, once brought beautiful pine cones the size of a fist from a school trip to Białowieża. For many years I was firmly convinced that the giant pines of the Białowieża Forest produce such proportionally large trees. It was only during my student days, when I visited Białowieża, that I first realized that the Białowieża giants, which are three hundred or more years old, have cones that are the same, or maybe even smaller, than their modest sisters near Warsaw. The large cones belonged to small black pines native to southern Europe, growing in the ornamental park surrounding the former tsarist palace.
While studying at the Academy of Fine Arts, I organized private outdoor painting and graphic workshops in Białowieża. After my studies, while living in Warsaw, I visited the forest several times a year, joking that I was of the Białowieża religion. While wandering around its wilderness, I accidentally discovered Dziedzinka. The Sawrycki couple lived there at that time.
Next to the house, among the apple trees, there were beehives. Potatoes grew and sunflowers bloomed in the backyard field. While exploring other parts of the forest, I lost sight of Dziedzinka for a long time.
Until one day, during another trip, I found out that the neglected house was empty. I thought that it could be a great place to work on a series of publications initiated in Warsaw about the behavior of wild animals that are friends with humans and at the same time enjoy full freedom. I have always been very interested in the mental capabilities of beings of other species. Also the similarities and differences between us and them. A friendly creature, devoid of fear of humans, using two different environments – civilized and natural – has the greatest opportunity to prove its various capabilities.
Armed with a recommending letter from the Ministry of Culture, I went to the director of the Białowieża National Park, Józef Budzyń, who was responsible for Dziedzinka, with a proposal to rent it. At that time, I was quite a well-known author of nature albums published by the popular science editorial team of Nasza Księgarnia Publishing House,
Wydawnictwo Sport i Turystyka, as well as abroad, so he saw no obstacles and agreed to lease Dziedzinka to me. The Park administration was preparing the contract, and I went to Warsaw to organize the move. Unexpectedly, I received a letter from the Park management with the scheduled date of arrival in Białowieża.
As I entered the principal’s office, I saw a very young-looking, long-haired female creature sitting at his desk. She looked at me with a cheeky, yet slightly uncertain smile.
“I have a neighbor for you on Dziedzinka, what do you think?” said the director.
Until now, the area seemed indivisible to me. Although she had two independent apartments, I did not include any neighbors in my plans. But I have also been a committed feminist since childhood, wishing the best for the opposite sex. In addition, kind people have already informed me about the behind-the-scenes of the case. I had time to put myself in the shoes of a determined girl with twin passions and a soft-hearted director. He had to deal with quite a dilemma, receiving a new offer to live in Dziedzinka from a person whose refusal would have been a grave sin of lack of courtesy.
Simona was an extremely reliable and responsible person. At the same time, he is an independent thinker, curious about the secrets of the world, critical of various supposed truths and views that people like to impose on other people as the only right ones. Her titanic diligence, combined with her willingness to overcome everyday difficulties, was admirable. She faced them with a sense of humor, extraordinary ingenuity and bravery. I once found her alone in the wilderness, tinkering with her moped. He refused to obey. She stood leaning over him, her head strangely tilted. She held a twisted-out candle in one hand and stretched a strand of her hair with the other. Due to the lack of necessary tools, she used them to remove the cause of the failure – a carbon deposit bridge between the electrodes, preventing ignition.
Simona Kossak in 2002 Photo: Agnieszka Sadowska / Agencja Wyborcza.pl
Another time, while returning to Dziedzinka on a windy winter evening, I saw an unusual brightness on the road in front of the car in the darkness of the forest. I drove closer. In front of me was a Fiat with a running engine. He illuminated the crown of an old birch tree that had been blown over by the wind and was blocking the road. Wearing this crown, swinging an ax vigorously, a familiar, small figure was bustling around. Simonka was cutting her way through. Although we had cell phones and, if called upon, I could cut it with a chainsaw and remove the obstruction with a tractor, but she decided she could handle it herself. It was Simona straight away. Simon, one might say, in a nutshell. A true untamed soul.
Extremely brave, she excelled not only in the border wilderness, but also when, with rare civil courage, she fought for what was right and spoke out publicly against the heavily fortified majority. She disregarded all glitz, glamor and show. If she attracted attention, it was only in an unintentional, spontaneous way – with her wit, reflexes, eloquence. Her personal requirements were very modest, she dressed cheaply, with her own taste and comfort, in popular rags. With amazing sensitivity, she extracted useful and tasteful things from piles of used clothing. Like a thrush dipping its beak into the grassy soil for an invisible earthworm, she simply dipped her hand, and what she found usually aroused envious glances from other customers.
Unbeknownst to many people, she preferred to spend her money, often anonymously (because they will think I’m so rich and attack me), for foundation purposes or for constructive help to private individuals. She was certainly the only professor in the world with a Ph.D. who drove a toddler. But for fresh air, with an opening window in the roof. Once, after a ministerial conference in Warsaw, an important person walking her to her car, seeing what she was getting into, said: “Professor, you’re probably exaggerating.”
As an efficient, prudent, accident-free driver, she usually did not exceed the speed limit. After a bicycle and mopeds, she had three Fiats. There are various fun things associated with them. The first one was seriously damaged by a drunk driver in the parking lot in front of the Forest Research Institute in Białowieża. While sitting at her computer, she heard a semi-truck passing by and a sudden crash. She looked out the window, the strange car was driving away quickly, she looked at her own car. He stood where she left him. Only after a while she discovered that it was in the opposite position. Hit violently from the right side from behind, he hit the concrete foundation of the fence, bounced and spun around.
The second one served for a long time and finally could not withstand many years of travel along a route regularly destroyed by heavy machines transporting the trunks of cut trees out of the forest. It more often resembled a factory obstacle course to test the durability of vehicles than a normal forest road. She was returning late at night from the ceremony of naming the excellent Secondary School of Fine Arts in Łomża after Wojciech Kossak. There was a grating noise in the car from time to time. She arrived at Dziedzinka well after midnight. She got out, opened the gate, tried to move, and then there was a sharp grating noise and the ambitious baby, having bravely brought her to the house, finally refused to obey.
The last Fiat looked downright elegant, apart from the sunroof it had an unusual color – a tasteful greenish metallic, which she decided to paint the car shortly after purchasing it. To the painting mechanic from Białowieża, who was supposed to make this transformation, she gave her sweater, which had been worn down by time and had not been used for a long time, as a model. He failed to hit the mark with the flush. The plant in Bielsk Podlaski also failed. They went together to a specialist in Białystok. Faced with difficulties, the specialist asked playfully: “Professor, wouldn’t it be easier to buy a new sweater?”
My life with Simona Kossak – cover promotional materials of the Marginesy publishing house
Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
