Jan

Why talk to the Canary?

What would you say if your memory was fading and you met someone recording stories for a social history project? What would you like them to remember when you forget?

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“I was living in France… yes… I speak very good French… incredible to think… I am out of breath… it is interesting what we remember. I tried to have a very happy life… generally happy, and my name translates as happy.

“It’s funny… originally I was born in Chicago, but I live now in Bulgaria… Bulgaria a little country between the Black Sea and the Blue Danube… it is rather beautiful… very nice countryside… mountains… nice mountains and sea… everything… you have it in Bulgaria. Sofia, it has nice places but it has poor as well… never mind.

“The young people here, they do not talk to me… they have nothing to say. They are busy, but they have time to talk to Canary.

“I wish I had photographs to prove to myself how things were, but the machines were not there… that could have helped us, but now there is nothing else… and my memory, to be honest, is gone.

“I never went back… I would prefer to go to America to complete the circle. They gave me an American passport… but it is a good life in London… I married an Englishman... he was army… I met him privately… a good-looking straightforward gentleman… you know an English gentleman… can’t tell a lie… he was very honest, very… straightforward… after the war he had a little pension… nothing to speak of… I earn more than he does.

“This is something I have wanted to do for a very, very long time. The chap, the man I would like you to remember… he was an aristocrat… a wonderful man, a wonderful man… do you know how the Germans killed him? They were very cruel… they beat him and told him to count with every blow… tied him to a chair…“Count!”… 1, 2, 3, 4 … “Count!”… 5, 6, 7,

“He counted until thirty-three in German, and then he died… he was my dear friend… he said, whatever happens, we must never forget each other… never forget. That was my first love… I was seventeen, and he was twenty-seven… and we were great friends… a few kisses… nothing more… a nice man… blond… I could never forget him… he was so cruelly murdered… horrible. Do you know, to kill a man like that… a normal man… it is horrible… the Germans were very cruel… they killed him because he was not German, he was English… and that was sufficient… It is not a nice story for you to hear, but you will remember, and I will soon forget.”

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Here’s a link to Jan’s story performed by Sian Phillips.