Janina Kolalanek Autobiography

Something that contributes to how I define myself is the babysitter I had as a child. Her name was Janina Kolanek, we called her Jean, and she was a polish immigrant. She taught me a whole load of life lessons, both directly and indirectly, that shaped me into the person I am today. Jean didn’t necessarily have the best life. She was a prisoner of war in the Holocaust as a child and she never saw her family again after that. When she moved to America she found a husband she loved very much and together they adopted a child. However, he died and she missed him for the rest of his life. She was left with a child who sure as hell did not appreciate her for the woman she was. Despite all of this, she loved life and was full of love. She taught me, indirectly, that no matter your circumstances in life, you have every reason to be happy still.

He was crying and Jean offered her help to my mother. She became the babysitter for my two brothers after that; I’ll be arriving in about a year and a half. She was the first person to hold me when I came home from the hospital and she loved me ever since. When I was a child she told me I was beautiful, loved, and appreciated. This did wonders for a child. To this day, I’ll think back to her saying that when I feel down. She taught me to love myself fully before I even fully understood what love was. She taught me to not only love and respect myself, but others as well. I see this when I think of how she came into our family. She had no reason to help us that one day in church; she did it purely out of the love in her heart. She was very generous. She had a son who claimed to be disabled and refused to work. She never kicked him out was and she worked until her 80’s to support the two of them. She was very religious so she always had hope for tomorrow’s world. This was also something I picked up from her. Even when everything has gone bad, I know that it will get