When they met, there wasn’t an immediate spark.  “I quickly gave up.”  They have been married for over 45 years

When they met, there wasn’t an immediate spark. “I quickly gave up.” They have been married for over 45 years

Ma³gorzata and Donald Tusk met while studying at the University of Gdańsk. They decided to get married after only three months of dating. In 2024, they will celebrate their 46th anniversary, but at the beginning of their friendship, there was no indication that they would be together. Moreover, the wedding might not have taken place at all. Why?

In her youth, Małgorzata was interested in fashion and books. She sewed her own clothes, studied well, and could read up to two books in one day. This made her father threaten her that she would never find a husband. – You will never marry! You will become an old maid and sit in those books of yours – he cried, as she recalled in hers

Małgorzata and Donald Tusk met during their studies. He didn’t immediately catch her eye

She met Donald Tusk during her studies. Against the advice of her father, who said that science and foreign languages ​​would be better, she chose history. She wasn’t particularly interested in partying or the opposite sex, dating bored her, so she focused primarily on her studies. This changed when she returned from a research trip in her second year of studies. She couldn’t find a seat next to her friends on the bus, so she joined a friend she didn’t know. They were in one year, although they studied in different groups.

I looked at him, at his blond curls that always curled over his forehead, at his prominent nose, and we started talking sluggishly. He was a bit shy and didn’t really like the conversation, so I quickly gave up and slept the rest of the way.

– she said. After returning to Gdańsk, the whole group went to a party at a friend’s house. There, Donald tried to pick up his friend, but not entirely successfully. Małgorzata, tired of the attempts, left the room. – You know what, this Donek is stupid – she commented to her friend, what Tusk heard. “It hurt him terribly,” so he started doing everything to make Małgorzata change her mind. This happened, but only during the holidays after successfully passing the exams in the session. It was the holidays of 1978. In October, after returning to university, they informed their family and friends… about the wedding.

They got married after 3 months of dating. The wedding almost didn’t happen

However, there were complications and the wedding almost didn’t happen at all. 21-year-old Donald Tusk took a job at a shipyard to earn money for an engagement ring and cover the wedding costs. He had to get up before dawn for work. So he left Małgorzata money for the ceremony, which she was to take to the registry office. On the way, however, she saw beautiful shoes in a shop window.

They seemed so amazing to me that I bought them without hesitation for the money I received from Donek. I believed that the real world, our wedding, was so constant, so obvious, that it would not escape. And yes, the shoes will run away

– . Donald Tusk was not delighted. When he heard what his fiancée had done with the money, he turned on his heel and left, saying as he left that he would never marry her. However, the wedding took place at the end of November.

It was a rainy day in 1978. The wedding took place in Gdańsk and the wedding reception in Gdynia, so that no one would feel inferior. We were 21 years old, penniless students, without a flat, but with dreams

– recalled Donald Tusk.

The wedding after three months of acquaintance was not fully thought out, as Małgorzata herself admitted in her autobiography. They had no education, no job, no apartment. After the wedding, they lived in a room with Tusk’s mother, then moved to a rented room. Donald worked at a shipyard and had a pension from his deceased father, while Małgorzata taught English in a kindergarten and, after defending her master’s thesis, as an archivist and librarian. However, they would not have been able to do it without their parents’ help. After the birth of my son, Michał, there were some grinding noises. Tusk became involved and was at home less and less often. Małgorzata, as she recalled years later, felt overwhelmed and lonely. She had an affair, which she honestly admitted to her husband. They managed to save themselves, and in 1987 the couple’s second child, Katarzyna, was born. However, they decided to have a church wedding only in 2005. In 2024, Małgorzata and Donald Tusk will celebrate their 46th anniversary.

Source: Gazeta

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