acts of service,
memories of a legacy of love.
most of what I know about my paternal grandfather was from my personal observations and recollections of my grandmother, dad, uncle and our family historian cousin Laurel.
my grandfather was very reserved, humble, serious, respectable, a devoted husband and family man. family was everything to my grandparents and framed pictures, albums of our large extended family especially the grandchildren filled their home.
grandpa didn’t talk very much; he was an inventor, thinking about practical problems and how to solve them. I remember all sorts of contraptions in his tool shed and garage, all designed and built by him with refurbished or recycled parts. if something broke he repaired it.
he was also a very intellectually curious individual, it seemed like he savored retirement as an opportunity to learn through extensive reading of books and newspapers at the downtown library, travels with us as a family and growing plants especially exotic fruit trees from seed, tending the garden. if there had been the internet in those days… grandpa’s short wave radio sufficed.
grandpa was also an avid collector of classical music LPs. I remember him perusing the endless bins of records searching for a particular piece that was missing from his collection. after lunch he would make a selection and play the (mostly soothing) music while we all took a nap.
grandpa dressed impeccably for trips into town, wearing a suit with a pocket watch, hat and, in his old age, a cane.
In the late sixties/early seventies my grandfather, approaching his eightieth birthday, embarked on the pursuit of a patent for a more efficient rotary internal combustion engine, drafting a model of the invention he had envisioned as a young man.
once his designs were developed he consulted with a number of lawyers with referrals that ultimately led to a firm of specialized patent attorneys in Washington DC. it was deemed that only specific parts of his design including the fuel injection system were unique as to merit a patent.
grandpa exhibited ingenuity, determination in the face of hurdles, he definitely had spunk!
eventually the process drained grandpa’s financial resources and he suspended the endeavor.
I remember sympathetically feeling the stress and weight of this pursuit. his attempt to leave a financial legacy for his family. shortly afterwards he suffered a stroke and then a second stroke from which he later succumbed.
~~~
recently watching a program about the challenges of building a railway through rugged terrain I thought of my grandfather, one of the many mostly anonymous engineers and builders of the Ecuadorian railroad system in the early 1900s spanning the length of the country and linking remote mountainous interior villages and cities to coastal ports.
my grandparents were originally from Prague, Czechoslovakia. following grandfather’s education in civil engineering specializing in drainage a friend suggested that grandpa join him hitching a ride on a freighter to Bolivia for contract work on railway construction to the tin mines. subsequent contracts working for a German civil engineering firm led to jobs in Cuba and Ecuador during WW1 and, with significant assistance of a Jewish friend, more permanent employment during WW2 with the Ecuadorian National Railroad.
my cousin Laurel recounted the treacherous circumstances the family faced when the Nazi government required documentation of generations of lineage without Jewish descendants to avoid the camps. a distant cousin was discovered to have married a Jewish woman. she describes the lengths to which grandpa’s Jewish friend provided the family practical and personal support. our family was the last family allowed by the Nazi government to leave the country.
Grandfather eventually served as chief engineer for the National Railroads of the Republic of Ecuador 1940 - 1952 before immigration to the United States where he and grandma started over once again becoming naturalized citizens in 1958.
my grandfather rarely discussed his accomplishments in my presence and growing up I was not aware of the medals he was awarded for his work, only that it was extremely dangerous work requiring travel by horseback and camping in the jungle filled with snakes.
apparently grandpa sold his gold medals to raise funds for retirement living expenses.
when my dad passed in 2021 his safe deposit box held the last of my grandfather’s medals, a bronze railroad medal of merit.
my dad outlined grandfather’s engineering work for the railroad also documenting his bridge design work, commemorated in an official Ecuadorian stamp, in an article he wrote that was published in a 2008 issue of a stamp collecting magazine (unavailable online.)
the rough draft of dad’s article,
Grandfather’s bridge had an inauspicious start according to my dad’s recollection: “Unfortunately my father was back in Prague when the bridge was being built. The contractor tried to change the specifications of the mortar so when the scaffolding was removed the bridge collapsed. Fortunately after the cause of the collapse was determined it was decided to rebuild it. At the opening ceremony a truck driver was commissioned to drive his truck over the bridge. Before doing so the man received a blessing from the bishop, crossed himself and drove over.”
I researched grandpa’s bridge “Puente del Centenario,” which survived the devastating Cuenca flooding of 1950 in which 15 other bridges were destroyed.
Grandpa’s bridge still stands and is actively used today, over one hundred years after its completion.
the bridge spans the river, El Rio Tomebamba in central Cuenca.
the city of Cuenca was built over the ruins of the ancient Inca city of Tomebamba which legend hints to as a candidate for the “mythical” gold-encrusted city of El Dorado.
normally docile, El Rio Tomebamba which emanates from the Andes mountain range routinely and brutally ravages through the city leaving a path of destruction and death in its wake.
images of Puente del Centenario, past and present:
dad also mentions grandpa’s work on the Simbambe - Cuenca segment which includes “la nariz del Diablo” (devil’s nose.)
I am not sure if grandpa participated directly in the design which incorporates a sharp switchbacks in which the train approaches the track ending before backing down the slope for a distance then resuming forward movement.
design of railroad tracks through steep terrain requires maintenance of a specific grade (mentioned frequently as maximum of 2.2% for freight trains) so creativity in incorporating curves, banking, tunnels and lengthy expanses of track is necessary.
in recent years, even as other parts of the Ecuadorian railway system fell into state of disrepair, this segment remained a popular hair-raising tourist attraction.
~~~
my grandmother lived for eleven years following my grandfather’s death. she frequently spoke about how much she dearly missed him.
shortly after her passing, I returned one weekend to work in grandma’s garden to tidy up the flower beds before the sale.
sleeping in the guest bedroom amidst boxes of tagged housewares, furniture and mementos to be distributed to all the grandchildren I had a vivid encounter with my smiling grandmother who told me she was with grandpa and that they were very happy.
~~~
some of my earliest memories are of a miniature wooden bench my grandpa made for me as a toddler.
I remember grandpa in his overalls and work cap sawing and hammering.
I remember toting my bench around the garden to wherever I felt like sitting.
I remember feeling special that grandpa made my tiny bench just for me.
I wish that I had a photograph of my bench, the absence of which makes my memories feel like a wonderful dream.
thank you grandpa for your amazing acts of service, your legacy of love.
a favorite of dad’s, the very beautiful, soulful lilt of notes mimicking the ebb and flow of the majestic river,
wishing you, my dear readers, a fabulous Father’s Day weekend!
My favorite post you have ever written. Just awesome! Yay for engineers! 💖
a positively lovely message to increase consciousness. Endless gratitude and thanks.