[Two letters, clipped together in Irena Nowak's correspondence folder. The first is a carbon of Nowak's own letter, sent via international post. The second is the Polish original of the reply, with Nowak's English translation clipped beneath.]

Letter I — Nowak to Mrs. Witecka, Lublin

St. Casimir's Parish School 118 Halicka Street, Port Hume, America 4 November, 1923

Dear Mrs. Witecka,

I write in sorrow, and in the hope that what I write will arrive at your hand before the shock of the news does, though I know from the steamer schedule that this is hardly possible.

Your brother, Father Wiktor Jarzembek, died on the evening of Sunday the 14th of October, at the rectory of his church. The Coroner of our county has found that he fell down the staircase and broke his neck. He was buried on the 18th, after a funeral of full parish dignity. A bishop came from Buffalo to concelebrate. The church was crowded; many wept.

I write to you with two specific matters.

First, as to his personal effects. His vestments and clerical goods belong, of course, to the parish. His private books and his correspondence, per his standing instruction to Mrs. Makowski (our Women's Sodality president), are to be returned to you, as his only surviving sister. The parish will crate these and ship them to Lublin in the spring, when the lake-and-ocean passage is more reliable. If you prefer other arrangements, please write me and I shall see them carried out.

Second, and this is a matter I write as myself and not as an agent of the parish — I taught, for twelve years, in the school your brother founded. He was my friend. He was my confessor. I ask, with the greatest respect, whether in his last letters to you he seemed well. He had been — here I reach for a word and do not find it — troubled of late. I do not know by what. I wonder if you might know.

I am sorry to make this second ask of you in a letter that has already given you the first loss. I will respect any silence.

I remain, with my deep sympathy and my prayers for you and your family,

Your servant in Christ, Irena Nowak

Letter II — Mrs. Witecka's reply (Polish original, with Nowak's English translation)

Polish:

Szanowna Pani Nowak,

Twoja wiadomość dotarła do mnie dziesiątego tego miesiąca i nie miałam słów przez cały dzień. Dziękuję za Twoje staranie.

Nie wiedziałam, jak do mnie wrócą Jego księgi — teraz wiem. Dziękuję też za to.

Pytasz, czy w ostatnich listach wydawał się dobrze. Nie. Był zatroskany. We wrześniu napisał do mnie list, dłuższy niż zwykle. Pisał, że odkrył sprawę rachunków w parafii, która wymaga jego odpowiedzi — i że jego odpowiedź musi być sprawiedliwa, ale może być dla niego kosztowna. Napisał — i zapisałam to dokładnie tak, jak napisał — że chce "postępować zgodnie z procedurą Pańską, nie z procedurą mądrości świata."

Nie napisał, kto jest winny. Nie napisał sumy. Napisał tylko, że w parafii jest "brat," który nie chce słuchać. Modliłam się za niego. Nie wiem, czy w dniu Jego śmierci poszedł sam do tego brata, czy wezwał świadków, czy był w drodze ku jednemu z tych dwóch kroków.

Jeśli okoliczności Jego śmierci są jasne — niech Bóg go przyjmie. Jeśli nie są — niech Bóg to objawi w Jego czasie, nie w naszym.

Z wdzięcznością do Pani, kobiety, która była Jego przyjaciółką,

Krystyna Witecka (z domu Jarzembek) Lublin, 19 grudnia 1923

English (Nowak's translation, clipped beneath):

Dear Mrs. Nowak,

Your message reached me on the tenth of this month and I was without words for a whole day. Thank you for your care.

I did not know how his books would return to me. Now I know. Thank you for that also.

You ask whether in his last letters he seemed well. He did not. He was troubled. In September he wrote me a letter, longer than his usual. He wrote that he had discovered a matter of the parish's accounts which required his answer — and that his answer must be just, but might be costly to him. He wrote — and I have copied it exactly as he wrote it — that he intended to "proceed by the Lord's procedure, and not by the procedure of the wisdom of the world."

He did not write who was at fault. He did not write a sum. He wrote only that there was in the parish a "brother" who would not listen. I prayed for him. I do not know whether on the day of his death he had gone alone to that brother, or had summoned witnesses, or was on his way toward one of those two steps.

If the circumstances of his death are clear — may God receive him. If they are not — may God reveal it in His time, not in ours.

With gratitude to you, a woman who was his friend,

Krystyna Witecka (née Jarzembek) Lublin, the 19th of December, 1923

[pencil note, Makowski's hand, affixed:]

"Mrs. Nowak showed me this on the 8th of February. I have asked her to keep it, as it may some day be wanted. E. Makowski, 1924."