Active aging
December 2013 • Vol. 35-No. 1 316-942-5385
January 2004 • Vol. 25-No.2
Informing 112,000 55+ readers Southcentral Kansas Serving 80,000 Readers in in South Central Kansas
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By Debbi Elmore t’s Thanksgiving Day. Adults and children are gathering, but they aren’t waiting for the malls to open. At 6 p.m. a switch is thrown, hundreds of lights blaze and the North Pole is open for another holiday season. A steady stream of parents and children line up to visit Santa Claus. For Santa, Mrs. Claus, Grandpa Elf and CTM (Chief Toy Maker), as well as the other helpers, this is what their yearlong efforts are all about. They have entertained visitors at the North Pole, visited children in the hospital, been honored guests at Christmas parties and held the hands of dying children for two decades, all without compensation. It is their ministry of love. Santa says he didn’t choose his mission; he was called to it. Disabled, he was unable to continue in his profession as a photographer. At breakfast one Saturday morning, his wife and friends joked that he was looking more like Santa Claus every day, with his snowy hair, flowing white beard, deep voice and comfortable build. A lively conversation ensued; their friends liked the idea of him giving such a special gift to youngsters. On his disability and his wife’s minimum wage income, they began their ministry. Santa told his life-long friend
I
Courtesy Photo
if he were going to be Santa, his friend would have to be an elf. To his surprise, his friend agreed, and has been Grandpa
Elf since the beginning. They determined that no child
See Santa, page 7
Harrowing escape from budapest
ACTIVE AGING PUBLISHING, INC 125 S West St., Suite 105 Wichita, Ks 67213
By Debbi Elmore (On Dec. 22, 1956, Jeno and Liz Kvassay arrived in Wichita after a harrowing escape from behind the Iron Curtain. Following is their story.)
Jeno and Liz Kvassay spent their honeymoon tiptoeing across a Hungarian minefield in pouring rain, scared to death and praying they wouldn’t set off an explosion in their desperate attempt to escape their Communist oppressors. They had waited 10 long years to be together, four of which Jeno spent being brutally tortured as a political prisoner of the Soviets. After university students fomented a revolt, the Russians pulled back and political prisoners were released. But the reprieve was short-lived. The Russians came back in force, and the newly-wed couple was fleeing for their lives. Life hadn’t always been like this. The children of upper middle class families in Budapest, they had enjoyed privileges until World War II broke out. First came the German army, and their Jewish friends
began disappearing. Eventually 425,000 of Hungary’s Jews would disappear. The Germans made the “pest” side of Budapest into a ghetto. Life under the Germans was hard, but it paled in comparison to the Russian occupation. “They were animals,” Liz snaps, eyes blazing. They raped, pillaged and murdered at will. She says they drank the cologne she and her mother had because it contained alcohol. Jeno worked at the American embassy as an interpreter and gofer. He spoke five languages. “Not a safe job,” Liz says. “We would meet and walk home.” One day they were followed. “I stopped and looked in the store window, and I could see someone followed us. In a trench coat, See Budapest, page 26