We are very happy to announce that Molly Robertson has
recently joined Office Gallery as our newest Design Project Assistant.
In this position, Molly will be assisting with the
planning, presentation, finish and furniture selection for new and existing
clients as they look to Office Gallery for effective and exceptional design
solutions.
Most recently, Molly worked as a Design Associate with
Boston Interiors, where she built her experience in design consultation and
home furnishings selections. Before
entering the design field, however, Molly worked in law enforcement for several
years. She shifted her career direction
when she realized she was interested in pursuing a profession that would allow
her to use her creative skills more frequently.
Molly’s less-than-traditional career path in design is a
testament to her passion for her work. To
fulfill her realization, Molly went back to school and earned a certificate in
residential interiors
from Boston Architectural College. (Previously
she earned a bachelor of sciencedegree from Northeastern University,
where she majored in criminal justice and minored in psychology.)
She currently resides in Foxboro with her husband and
son. In her free time, Molly enjoys
camping, fishing, and the outdoors.
We are very glad to welcome Molly to our expanding design
team – her experience in client consultation and eye for design will contribute
to our track record of exceeding customer expectations!
Come into Office Gallery any time and say hello to Molly!
A Summer Trip Unlike Any Other
Summer is typically seen as a
time for relaxing, carefree and light vacations, filled with trips to the beach
or the mountains to get away from the stresses of everyday life. Earlier this summer, Office Gallery’s Jordana
Wluka Bishop took a different kind of trip – one still far away from the
everyday, but full of meaning, understanding, and importance.
Together with her parents, David (brother
of former Office Gallery owner, Allen Wluka) and Nancy Wluka, her niece Jadyn
and nephew Zachary, they set off to go back in time. It would be her first
visit to her grandfather’s (Icek “Hank” Wluka) hometown, Nowy Dwor Mazowiecki,
located in east central Poland. She would soon come to realize truly how significant
this place had been to her family both in the past and present.
According to the Nowy Dwor Jewish
Memorial website, Nowy Dwor (as it’s more commonly referred to) started with a
small Jewish population in the late 17th century and grew to the
point where nearly half the population was Jewish.
David Wluka first visited Nowy
Dwor with his father, Hank, in 1988 to visit his hometown and the Jewish cemetery
where his family lay. They found the cemetery had been desecrated by the Nazis
in 1942, when they took the remaining Jewish population out of the Ghetto to Auschwitz.
They were horrified and heartbroken to see open, broken graves – empty holes
where their family had once rested. And a few scattered bones, including a
baby’s skull which they brought to Sharon Memorial Park for a proper burial.
This plaque is displayed in many different languages at Auschwitz-Birkenau, at the end of the train.
More than 20 years later, in 2010,
some of the headstones (matzevot in Hebrew) were discovered during
ordinary utility work, which prompted a concerted effort by David Wluka and
Ze’ev Shaked, another descendant, to create the non-profit Nowy Dwor Jewish
Memorial (NDJM). This is when they discovered that Nazis had torn out the
headstones to be used as reinforcement under the dirt roads for their tanks and
trucks. They had also mined the cemetery, including the caskets and corpses
inside, for sand to make concrete.
As a result of donations from
around the world, more than 150 headstones have been uncovered so far, many in
good condition, and are now displayed as part of two memorial walls at the
cemetery. NDJM also has compiled a
database of birth, death and marriage certificates, among other legal documents,
for descendants to trace their family histories. They provide scholarships to local
students who win their annual essay contest on tolerance, as well as make
donations to their schools as prizes.
Jordana says the trip and the
ceremony offered her more perspective and patience. She met other descendants and cousins from
Israel for the first time, heard stories about her grandfather’s short life
before the war, and was able to better imagine what he and others experienced. She
thought about whether she could have survived something like what her
grandparents did in their teenage years. Her grandfather was assigned to Building
8 in the Auschwitz work camp, and worked at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, digging
out the ash pits from the crematoriums, which Jordana visited prior to the
ceremony. Her grandmother, Bronia “Brenda” Patashnik Wluka, was moved to a
ghetto and lived there until she ran when she learned it was to be liquidated. She survived by hiding from house to house and
later by digging shallow graves in farmland that she hid in during the day. Brenda
was 13-15 years old during this time.
Mostly, Jordana thought about her
grandparents’ lives after that time, and the wonderful memories they gave her and
her brother Aaron over the years. Both
survivors of the holocaust, Hank and Brenda met at a displaced persons camp and
were married after three weeks.
Jordana’s father David (named after Hank’s father) was born in Austria
about a year later before the three of them came to the United States to Boston
where their sponsors – her grandmother’s cousins – welcomed them. Brenda and Hank had two more sons, Allen and
Michael, and Hank went on to start a TV and appliance sales and repair store in
South Boston.
Icek and Bronia’s wedding photo (painting)
Jordana remembered that throughout
his days her grandfather carried with him a genuine gratitude just to be alive,
and never had a bad thing to say about anyone.
And those kind, kind blue eyes. When he passed away in 2001 from
Alzheimer’s, he was remembered with story after story of him helping those less
fortunate – offering food and clothing whenever he could. Her grandmother was known for her beautiful rendition
of “God Bless America,” which she sang frequently, and for being a wonderful friend
to all. She passed away just over a year
ago of pancreatic cancer. Hank and Brenda
were married for 55 years. Their survival led to three sons, three daughters (in-law),
five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren (with another on the way!).
Hank and Brenda’s 50th wedding anniversary, renewing their vows
As a result of these memories,
and stories, and circumstances, Jordana has devoted much of her time in her
adult life to causes such as the Foxboro Walk to End Alzheimer’s and the Nowy
Dwor Jewish Memorial. We are proud to support
Jordana, and to lend our support to these important causes as well.
They still haven’t found Hank’s
father’s headstone.
