It's A Wonderful World: Inspiring Stories About Ordinary People and God's Grace

PART 1

Voices from the Past

Chapter 1

Katiza’s Story

And all the countries came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph, because the famine was severe in the whole world.

Genesis 41:57, NIV

Petru and Katiza Popa in Nadab, Arad, Romania 1900’s

Katiza sat on the hard bench at the Romanian Orthodox Church and looked around her at family and friends. Deep in her heart she held a dream. She dreamt of going away to a new land, a place without hunger or worry for tomorrow, a place where she could call home, but for now she looked around at her loved ones whom she would carry with her forever. As the congregation rose to sing the closing hymn, a young man from the village nearby caught her eye, Petru Popa; he was only five feet six inches tall, with a medium complexion, hazel eyes, and dark brown hair. He was her neighbor and her friend. He worked very hard at his father’s farm, together with all of his brothers and sisters. Katiza straightened her skirt and her babushka and smiled at him as he walked by. He grabbed her arm and together they walked outside into the bright summer day.

How are you? he asked casually, and Katiza thought how she would answer.

I’m fine, she answered bashfully, glancing at Petru from the corner of her dark eyes. I have to go now because I have to help my mama prepare soup, and make placintas,

It was a very simple food that only used a few ingredients, green beans, sour cream, flour and cheese. Her mother taught her to cook, and she did it well, it was one of her passions.

That sounds good! Petru exclaimed, and as he flashed his handsome smile, her heart melted a little bit inside.

See you tomorrow at school? Katiza asked.

No, I will have to work at the farm, he answered as he walked away toward his parents’ village,

Katiza’s Recipe for Placintas (Cottage Cheese Pastry)

8 cups flour

½ pound of butter

3 eggs

salt

warm water

Filling:

1 pound cottage cheese

½ cup sugar

6 eggs salt

grated lemon rind

Sift flour, and add eggs one at a time, then add flour, warm water and salt. Knead until dough blisters. Roll dough into balls and place on floured board, cover each piece with melted butter and let stand for twenty minutes. Stretch each ball, and put in cheese filling, press shut with a fork and put into a buttered pan. Bake in a medium oven for one hour.

The Romanian Way of Cooking, p. 88

It was quite a long journey as he went on his way home. It was a difficult time, and every family struggled to put food on the table to feed their children. When he finally made it to his home, a white sturdy stone house with a bright colored curtain covering for a door, his mother pinched him on the cheek.

Are you late again, Petru Popa? she said.

She had prepared a stew with one of the chickens on the farm using herbs, the pieces of meat and even the chicken feet in the sauce. The whole Popa family sat at the large table that was set up under the tree, waiting to start their dinner. Everyone received a small bit of the stew, as well as some vegetables that were grown on the farm. The Popas had an ample garden with various fruit trees, grapevines, and fragrant roses growing close by. They had water from the well to drink, and the grown-ups were allowed homemade wine.

Everyone ate what was served on their plate without complaining, but Petru wasn’t full. His stomach felt hollow after the meal. He looked down at his rough hands, and wondered what was to show for all of the hard work that he had done. Nothing seemed to change or get better in the small town where he lived. People worked hard and lived little and when they were gone, their children worked hard and lived the same way after them. Petru had a friend from a village nearby who had traveled to the new world of the United States of America. His letters had reached Petru and stirred inside of him a dream, a dream of eating more than chicken broth, a dream of no more famine or want for his family.

It was a dream that he couldn’t shake, and he talked about it deep in the night with his brother Teodor, who also wanted to come along to America. America, the land where there was work for all, automobiles and plenty of food. He knew what he wanted and it wasn´t staying here in Romania.

The following day, at the small school, Katiza could hardly concentrate on her lessons. She kept thinking about Petru, her friend, who she realized had taken residence in her young heart. His smile and the way that he tilted his head, were images engraved in her mind. As she left the school to head for home, her thoughts were flying to other places. Her family had known the Popa family for years, and though her mama didn’t always approve of them, she didn’t mind if Katiza was Petru’s friend. When she passed him on the road, he was in town on an errand, he gave her a slight nod, and his eyes were enchanting. She decided to bring him to her house for refreshments. It would give him a chance to chat with her mama. Once they got there after the long walk from town, Mama had some simple little cakes made with poppy seeds and flour. Petru drank a tall glass of milk from the neighbor’s cow.

Thank you, he said. He was a quiet young man, though polite and Mama didn’t mind when he came by.

She asked him, how are your family and the farm?

Still the same as ever, he replied.

How is Teodor, your brother? she asked.

At that moment, Petru knew that he had to tell them about his dream, his desire to move to America. He would go by himself or with his brother Teodor. He described what he really wanted, deep in his heart, it wasn’t to stay here, but it was to go far away. As Katiza listened, her cheeks turned slightly pink. Now she knew what she wanted, and for that matter who she wanted. She would go with Petru Popa to America, she would be his wife. Mama knowingly looked at Katiza, and the gleam in her eyes and she started to cry.

It was a simple ceremony in the small church in Nadab where Petru and Katiza were wed. The big Popa family was represented by many members, and Katiza’s mother, father, and sister were there. It was a moment bittersweet when well-wishers were happy for their love but wanted them to linger in Romania instead of traveling far away to a new country. There were warm smiles but also tears that cold brisk day.

In the year 1914, only two years after the glorious Titanic sank to the bottom of the ocean, Petru and Katiza bravely sailed a long voyage on the sea and arrived in their promised land, the USA. They left behind their village, their family, friends and loved ones to live in that new place. They left behind poverty and famine and the warm earth of their homeland. They hoped for a new start, a new family, a new home. They moved to Akron, Ohio where Petru found work at the General Tire and Rubber Company, and they had a little son named Pete August Popa, their first born in the USA in 1926. Life as they knew it before had changed to a drastic degree. They lived in a home in a Romanian neighborhood in Akron that was like a second family to them. They kept all of their Romanian customs including their language, and they never were able to learn English. It wasn’t necessary at the time; after all, their friends and colleagues were all Romanians who came over to America from their homeland.

Petru (or Peter, as he now liked to be called) was a very hard working man who gave his best at his work and planted a garden at home. He planted exquisite colored roses that were the most fragrant, grapevines, peppers, and cucumbers. In his spare time, he made his own wine from the grapes that he planted. Katiza changed her name to Katie once she moved to America, and she spent her time making things for her home, and cooking the foods that they both loved from the homeland. The same way that Katie had changed her name like the American style, she changed her attire as well. Gone were the babushkas and aprons, and in their place nice leather shoes with buttons, silky dresses with drop-waists, and a new haircut in a bob.

It all seemed like the realization of a wonderful dream when in 1929, little Pete was only three years old, a great dark blanket covered America and their own lives, and that was the Great Depression. When they had hoped to live in a land of no hunger, they now faced a famine again, working hard with little pay, and difficulty buying food. Katie made soups from whatever she could find, hoping the hot broths would fill their stomachs. It took a toll on their marriage and their love. They started to argue, almost all of the time, and most the time it was about money. Peter started drinking more than usual, trying for a few moments to forget his difficult life in America where he had once held such high hopes of things getting better. He tried to forget about all those he loved and lost in Romania when he left years ago. There was little he could do but pray for a better tomorrow. Katie craved the attention and affection from Peter that he didn’t have to give. It seemed that worry for the economy and obsession for the future had taken hold of his mind and heart. He didn’t want to be poor anymore!

If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.

Genesis 4:7, NIV

One morning, Katie was awake early and sat at the table waiting for the milk to arrive, and her face was stained with tears. The light of her eyes was gone and replaced with worry lines, lack of sleep from anxious thoughts. Little Pete was a present from God, but he kept her awake during the night, and occupied her hours during the day. Her soul was like a nearly empty water glass, settled on the table for all to see. The milkman named George came to deliver milk in the morning at her most vulnerable moment. He was taller and thin, not the most handsome of men, but his voice was kind and patient. He listened, and he made her laugh and smile which hadn’t happened in a very long time. She missed her family in the old country, she missed her mama, and she missed the close connection that she had with Peter her husband. He had withdrawn, creating a silent but thick wall around himself.

Maybe he had stopped loving her, she sadly thought to herself. So, it seemed that every morning, she was looking forward to the milk delivery, and George would come, unbeknown to Peter, and listen to her, drying her tears.

"KKKKatie, beautiful Katie,

You’re the only ggggirl that I adore!

When the mmoonshines over the cowshed,

I’ll be waiting at the kkkkitchen door!

Folk song, author unknown

George was able to talk Katie into leaving Peter Popa, her first true love, and to run away with him to live in Loraine, Cleveland, Ohio!

It was a decision that Katie would soon regret!

Time passed, but Katie couldn’t find happiness with him. George was a heavy drinker, and when he was drunk he had a terrible temper. One day, Katie woke up and resolved to return to Peter her husband. She wrote him a letter on a little slip of paper asking him if she could come home to him. Would he give her a second chance? She waited and when there was no reply, she packed up her little belongings and little Pete and made her way on foot all the way back to Akron, Ohio where they had lived. When she finally turned into that familiar street and saw their little home, her heart skipped a beat, and she had a lump in her throat. Was her Petru still living there? Would he take her back? All those kinds of questions were circling in her mind. She came to the front door, and she knocked. No one answered. She tried knocking harder, still harder. Finally a breathtakingly beautiful woman with long jet black hair to her waist, dressed in Gypsy styled clothing answered the door with a puzzled look on her face.

I am Katiza, Katie, and I’m looking for Peter Popa, is he here? she stammered, barely able to get the words out of her dry mouth.

At that moment, her eyes went to the abdomen of the young woman, which was round and protruding out of her vest. She was pregnant and was far along.

My name is Jenny, she said simply. I live here with Peter now, we are together.

Oh I see, said Katie as she tried to disguise her crushed and broken heart.

At that moment, as the tears were rolling down her face, and dripping off of her square determined chin, Peter came around the corner and stared at her, hardly believing his eyes.

Katiza, I’m sorry! I’m with Jenny now, he simply said. We are married, and Katiza turned to leave.

As she was leaving, he took one last look at her face, his first love, his Romanian bride who traveled with him all the way to America on the seas, and he felt regret and sorrow for what had passed. Even though she was leaving his life now permanently, she would never completely leave his heart or his mind, and there would come a day when he would demand for Pete, their son to be brought back to him for him to raise.

Katie started to cry on the way home, and only the sobs of little Pete drowned out the cries of her own heart and mind. They made their way all the way back to Loraine, Cleveland, Ohio.

Now it is too late for me to go back, she thought to herself.

She couldn’t go back home ever again, and she couldn’t go back to Romania. She had to take the broken pieces of her life and make a way. She resolved to try harder with George, her second husband. They had two more children, Helen, and little Katherine, and with Pete there were three. They were siblings who played happily together, and Helen learned how to cook just like her mother when she got older. The happy times that they had together were darkened by the drinking of her second husband, George. His drinking grew worse every day, and at one time he tore through the house, even destroying the Christmas tree. After one of those moments, she was walking to town, and she sank deeper in despair. The frown lines darkened on her young pale face, and her brown eyes were painted with pain.

"Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost, but now am found,

Was blind, but now I see."

John Newton

At the market, an older woman with withered hands and a warm smile greeted her with a hello in Romanian. There was something about this woman, a presence that was calming and life giving. Katie told her all of her troubles, her difficulty rearing her family, and she shared about her husband’s drinking problem. The woman invited George and Katie to a gospel meeting that was happening the next evening.

Do you know Jesus? the older woman asked. He will change your life, and bring joy to all of your days. He is the love that you need to know, she said.

The next evening, they all went to church together as a family, and they gave their lives to Jesus Christ. Although, Katie had been brought up in a traditional church, she had never realized that she could have a personal relationship with God, that He would take all of her mistakes and shortcomings, and that He would wash them all away, by the power of the blood through His death on the cross. He was the God of the second chances, and His grace was more than enough for her. Her life was now new, it was now the Lord’s, and through God’s mighty hands, her family changed. Pete, her firstborn, even gave his heart to the Lord one night when he was eight years old, and he was blessed and filled with the Holy Spirit at the Pentecostal church where they were active members. God filled Katie’s face with joy again, and it overflowed to her family, and out of that joy and rest she brought many of her friends and neighbors to Jesus.

Now their lives were better than ever before, but there was a new pain on the horizon. It started off as a stubbed toe, which turned into an infection, and continued to spread up the calf of Katie’s leg. She was nearly forty years old, still young in her mind and body, and she was adored by her family. There was nothing the doctor could do, except for the removal of her entire leg, as the infection had continued to grow. She decided not to have her leg amputated. The medicine in the day offered no hope for her body, but God was taking care of her soul. She was anointed and prayed over by her church elders, and they continued to hope and pray for her to be well, and eventually God brought her home to Him in heaven.

He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.

Revelation 21:4, NIV

Katie, or Katiza, her Romanian name, was finally at home in Heaven, enjoying her eternal rest. Peter Popa came to the house afterwards, and was grieving for what he lost as well as for his son. He informed their family that he would be taking Pete to live with him from now on. Pete was dearly loved by his younger sisters, and his stepfather George, but that was of little concern to his father, Peter. He wanted his son home with him. He gathered up his things, as he cried and led him from the house, leaving behind emptiness for the little girls who lost their loving mother and now their kind older brother.

When Pete moved into his father’s home in Akron, it was different than what he had experienced with his family in Cleveland. He loved his brothers George, Earl, Daniel, and his sister Annie, and they loved him back with all their affection. He was loved by his father, who also taught him many things he could do and make with his hands, and he taught him how to grow a garden. He had however, yet to win the love and affection of his stepmother, Jenny. He would take his meals in a separate space from the rest of the family. Dark times fell on the household. They were broke, and she couldn’t understand having one more mouth to feed at the table. Pete was also the son of beloved Katiza, whom still held a place in Peter’s heart, and thus, she resisted making the adjustment of including Pete wholeheartedly in her family. Hence, Pete was living there, but he was never really quite at home. He was loved, but there was something missing, so at sixteen years of age, he left home, with only the clothes that he wore.

Petru, or Peter continued to