Pope John Paul II-Biography_CTS - Standard Template 04/02/2011 15:14 Page 13
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In 1929, a month before his ninth birthday, there was certainly no escape from the harsh reality for Lolek. His beloved mother died of heart disease and kidney failure. She was buried from St Mary’s Church on 16th April 1929. The Captain was left to bring up his two sons on his own, though Edmund was already a man. That same year of 1930 Lolek moved on from elementary school to the junior section of the all-boys State Secondary School in Wadowice. With Mundek working in Bielsko, except for his visits home, the Captain and ten year-old Lolek developed their own daily routine. School began at 8am and they would rise, say Morning Prayers and breakfast before then. Once Lolek became an altar server, they would very often attend the 7am Mass in St Mary’s before school. Lolek would remember in later life the thrill of going to visit his older brother ‘Doctor Mundek’ at his hospital in Bielsko. It seems that Mundek encouraged such visits to help take Lolek’s mind off the loss of his mother. When Mundek came home to Wadowice on visits, he would take Lolek to soccer games. For his part, when he visited ‘Mundek’s hospital’, Lolek would put on one-man shows for his patients! Alas, death and separation were to enter Lolek’s life again as his beloved brother was stricken with scarlet fever