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A Girl’s Best Friend
Mary Szostak-Sitko and Taylor Lenze
An unsure, playful, child’s smile and arms wrapped protectively around a small dog--the connection between Zofia Szostak and her ‘Muszka’ is unmistakable in this photo from the 1930s.
Muszka was Zofia’s first dog. She remembered this dog all her life and told her daughter, Mary about it. Mary explains: “in 1933, at the age of 9, Zofia took a family trip to the seaside village of Karwia which faced the Baltic Sea and to the national park, Lasy Tucholskie, southwest of Tczew. It was on the vacation... that she was given her little dog ‘Muszka’, that Zofia thought she had a human brain. Muszka would die during the war of old age but Zofia would still say, in 1999, that she missed her.”
Though her childhood photo looks relaxed and happy, Zofia’s life was far from easy. An adopted child, she moved homes and schools often, living a lifestyle (mainly defined by war) which made dog ownership difficult. Her family once was even forced to leave a city when their house was burned down by the Nazis. In 1945, her boyfriend was imprisoned by the Urząd Bezpieczeństkwa and barely freed in time for both of them (both AK members) to hide and then flee Soviet Poland. On the road, they traveled to Germany, Italy and Great Britain before finally immigrating to the US in 1950.
Zofia’s love of dogs would follow her from Poland to the US many years later. Sometime around 1983, she got a Norwegian Elkhound named “Harnasz.” According to her children, although he was “beyond stubborn and not loving, he was truly her dog.” Still later when in her 80s, Zosia would have another dog, “Toby,”--this time one which adored her. Toby was a miniature Australian Shepherd. Zofia would call him playfully ‘Toby from Nairobi’ or ‘Tobełusiek’.”
Primary Source: The Doll in the Rubble by Mary Sitko
Text Source: https://www.mimemorial.com/obituaries/persons/S/Zofia
Photo Source: Mary Sitko’s files