"In Search for the Fantes Family"

A trip of discovery

A journey to the past

A link to the future

Closing

Lourdes’ Notes:

                         Thanks for the tips to enjoy Prague. All the advices were very handy, especially the one with warm clothes. It was very cold, humid and rainy. Prague needs another visit all by herself. It was too beautiful and too little time to see everything. However, that is a perfect excuse to come back to visit this marvelous city. We will try to go with the boys in a near future.

            Our trip to Marienbab, Ckyne, Platz and Buhomilice, was a very special one. We felt since the first moment right at home and never alone. For some reason I was confident enough where I was heading, and what to look for… I was in peace, and in a mission. Never felt that the language was a barrier. I knew perfectly well that when I asked for directions, even though I did not speak Czech, I was going to get the right help. The feeling and the conviction that I had so many Fantes ancestors behind my back were a constant in our trip. And we were right. All the addresses were understood, all the places waiting to be discovered for us. It was a wonderful feeling that danced all the time in our hearths.

            All the places were beautiful, but the one I considered the high point was without any questions the Ckyne cemetery.

It was so peaceful, so marvelous. I never thought I could feel so good and in peace in such a place. Knowing that all those Fantes generations were resting there, and feeling that they were not forgotten, that the same blood, centuries later came only with the purpose of meeting them…

  It was a powerful moment. Francisco was very excited, the experience was overwhelming. So many warm feelings… How did they look?, how could we help them now?, how could we show them all the respect and admiration in such a little time? And Jacob?, the patriarch, where is he?. Could we find him there?. Picture here, picture there… Can he send me a sign?. Well, I did not get it at that moment, but as I told you before I felt in direct connection with them. I know that we will know… When? I do not know. In the meanwhile, when we download the pictures in our computer, something strange occurred. All but one picture from around 300 has something peculiar.

  One of the Ckyne cemetery, one that I took while Francisco was searching for him, and that showed an almost completely view of all the cemetery. That picture, need to be examined more careful, more in detail for our dear friend Achab. In the photo, you could see two red lights in two different places. Yes, maybe was the light of the sun at that moment in the cemetery, maybe a fingerprint of one of my thumb, maybe is nothing… But it puzzles me that only in that picture of a package of almost 300 that problem aroused.

            The trip to those little villages and small towns were wonderful. We felt that after all what they went throughout all those centuries, after living, surviving cruel laws, dying in the way they did in the concentration camps, almost disappearing of the face of the earth, and even profaned by the nazis the places of their eternal rest; they now can rest in peace. We feel compelled to help, to restore, to rebuild… and nothing better to restart with our own surviving family.

  To let them know how lucky we are to still be together and in contact with each other. To make sure that our sons and future families know who we are, and where we came from. We belong, we have roots, and we are proud of those seeds. Without them, my husband, nor my sons would have been here in this world. 

  Lourdes Fantes  

"Ckyne's Cemetery Covered in Snow"

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Last updated: July 06, 2002.