Persistence Reunites Boy, Mother Torn by Cold War

Eight-year-old Jakub Potemski, who has lived in this country for exactly one week, squatted before his new Transformer toys and muttered to them in Polish. As his mother, Aleksandra, walked into the bedroom of their Studio City apartment, Jakub scanned her face inquiringly, smiled, and returned to his playing.

This has been a week of searching looks for the Potemskis, who were reunited a week ago after an almost eight-year separation caused by Cold-War politics. For Jakub, who until this week had never hugged his mother, eaten a hamburger or spoken English, it has also been a week of sensory and emotional overload. On Tuesday, he started school at St. Charles, a Catholic elementary school in North Hollywood.

But the boy, who had not seen his mother since he was 3 1/2 months old, appears to be adjusting just fine.

“Before he came, I was so afraid, wondering if he would adjust, if he would like me, if I would please him. I didn’t want to disappoint him,” his mother said.

Is she still worried? “Not at all. He’s always hugging and kissing me. It’s almost as if we’ve always been together.”

Potemski, 31, last saw her son in 1977, the year he was born. That year, she left her home in Poland to visit her husband, a jazz musician playing in Chicago on a two-year work permit, and decided to remain in America with him.

Government Balked

The couple planned to send for baby Jakub, who stayed behind with Aleksandra’s parents in Lodz, about 75 miles southwest of Warsaw. But the Polish government balked. “We’ll send you your son, but your wife has to come back,” Aleksandra Potemski recalled officials telling her husband.

Afraid that Polish officials might prevent her from moving to America if she returned to Poland, Aleksandra Potemski decided to stay with her husband, moving to Los Angeles with him in 1979, she says. Jakub stayed with his grandparents.

Soon, a series of misfortunes befell her. Her husband died suddenly. Immigration papers, along with those requesting permission for Jakub to be sent to her, were lost by the U. S. government, she said. Lacking the money and connections to fight for her son’s immigration, she had to settle for sending him gifts and money whenever possible. She kept their relationship alive through monthly phone calls, letters and photos.

Once, she sent Jakub a photo of herself with a girlfriend. “He told me, ‘I like Mrs. So and So, but my mom is more beautiful,’ ” Potemski recalled proudly.

Last year, Potemski finally gained political asylum through the efforts of her fiance, Ralph Andrews, a producer who is making a film about Lech Walesa, leader of Solidarity, the Polish workers’ movement. Andrews said he also was influential in obtaining a visa for Jakub.

Last Friday, as a nervous Potemski scooped her son into her arms at Los Angeles International Airport and headed home to the penthouse apartment she shares with Andrews, an eight-year dream was realized. That first night, Jakub slept 12 hours and felt fine the next day, his mother said.

He already has developed a routine. Each evening he spends an hour learning new English words using flash cards. Asked to demonstrate his prowess to a visitor, Jakub rolled his eyes in embarrassment, but he rattled off a long list of English words, including bicycle, banana and bus.

In the week he has been here, Jakub has developed some American tastes. He likes McDonald’s hamburgers, games from Toys R Us and school, he said, speaking through his mother, who translated from Polish. He is lukewarm on Kentucky Fried Chicken. Catsup, he dislikes.

School may rank even above burgers for Jakub. On his first day, he was apprehensive about the alien environment and the language he didn’t understand, Andrews said. By Wednesday, however, he could hardly wait to return.

In class Thursday, Jakub stared at a math workbook, whispered to his desk mate and listened intently to the chatter around him with his chin in his hand.

Intelligent and Motivated

Jakub’s teacher said he is intelligent and motivated--in Poland, he was an “A” student. “Coming into a third-grade environment is very difficult, but at his age, he’ll pick up English in two or three months,” said the teacher, Patricia Knatz.

And he already has found a friend who has some idea how he feels.

Throughout the day, desk mate Gevorg Mkrtehian helped Jakub with classroom work.