16/06/2024
Happy fathers Day apa, I will always look up to you. A few tid-bits about my dad ending with text from "Who's Who of Hungarians"...
I remember my dad working all night in his makeshift office in our apartment's garage. As a draftsman, he would take side jobs and do them after work. Other times, he would play the violin there. My father went through a lot, and he always wanted something better for us.
Homér Louis Lajos. No matter how much he suffered or struggled – and he did (WWII, followed by communism (Stalinism really), revolution and escaping to the US with no connections or knowing English) – there was a philosophy throughout our time together.
He was absolutely consistent with it. I don't remember if he ever came out and said it, but he obviously lived it.
The philosophy of hard work, responsibility and integrity as a way of life.
Before the war, he was Department Head of the Hopp Ferenc Museum. Then the war reared its ugly head.
He was about to get his pilot's license and had met my mom flying gliders. One day, during the war only he and my mom showed up to fly – the school was canceled because of the war – so he proposed. Shortly thereafter they got married and he was sent off to the Russian front with light artillery (heavy artillery was promised but never showed) to stop the Russian advance to Hungary. It was bitter and disastrous.
He talked very little about the war. Only thing I remember is when we went for walks as a kid, he told me he would not go to sleep at night because if you did you would freeze to death. Also, the frozen house and howling of the wolves scenes from the movie 'Dr Zhivago' reminded him of the war – abandoned houses in the dead of winter.
My mother got notice he was killed on the front. But he was captured and later escaped. He walked home and showed up New Years day.
My brother was born when the day-and-night-bombing of Budapest began (the same day the revolution began 12 years later). Our Home was bombed the day he was born, they didn't tell my mom, just kept her in the hospital.
In 1951 he was removed from his position as dept head – and from the museum entirely - sent 200km away and blacklisted from being allowed with 60 km of Budapest - because he would not join the communist party.
In San Francisco, my dad and mom looked forward to the monthly meetings of the Hungarian Club. They got a chance to socialize with other Hungarians, followed by watching an old Hungarian movie (pre-war, my Uncle lead danced in one of them) – then they socialized a little more. I have no idea how they got the movies in the 60's. My brother later ran the Hungarian Club and danced for it.
Hard work and sticking through his core philosophy helped get his three children through college and live quite good lives.
When I was little he often took me the the Palace of Fine Arts in SF. In the adjacent field he sometimes tried to teach me to play soccer. No luck. He played in college.
But he did teach me some things which are more important.
Happy Father's Day Apa.
Text from - "Who's Who of Hungarians" about 1963 (I only have a copy of the page):
Homer, Luis Lajos, Ph.D., Art Historian; born Mar. 5, 1909, Bp.; s. of Imre, aulic counc. And Illona (Kamarath) H.; married July 14, 1943; wife: Ilona (Natly); 3 children. - Education: Gimm., Makó, Hungary; Acad. Of Fine Arts, Bp., Dipl. Ed., 1937; Univ. of Bp., Ph.D. In Art History, 1939; post doctoral studies: Hungarian Govt. Scholarship for research in oriental art, 1937-39. - Career: Asst., then Curator, later Dept. Head, Natl. Museum of Hungary (Hopp Ferenc Museum, Dept. of Chinese Art), 1935-51; Teacher, Vasvar, Balassagyarmat and Bp., Hungary, 1936-41; Arch. Estimator, Komló Hungary, 1957; Designer Draftsman, Mayton Arch. Fabr., Inc., San Francisco, Calif. Author: "Bencsur Gyula" (biography), Bp., 1939; Keleti Miniatúrák" (brief history of oriental miniature painting), Bp.; "A Butor Története" (textbook for the Tecj. Univ. of Bp.), Bp., 1947.
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