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Pauline Pesjak, future wife of Joseph Vidich was an educated woman who fell in love with her soulmate and came to America to start a new life. Here she is about 18 years of age. She gave birth to her first daughter at 24 years of age and had her last child (Arthur) at 30. She lost her first son in a tragic accident when on January 14, 1920, the three year old toddler pulled a pot of boiling water over his head and died from the injuries. This emotional scar would last for many years and even the birth of their second son, Arthur, did not erase this horrible memory.
A photo of the young Joseph before he died is shown here with his older sister Pauline. According to my cousing Mary Jauquet Royer the photo was taken by an itinerant photographer who came with a goat and cart. Their mother Pauline redid the photo and had a garden scene placed in the background around 1930 to make it prettier. Prior to retouching the photo, therre was an old shed and wood plank walk in the background. She also had the new version of the photo tinted.
Joseph and Pauline gave their children a good education, plenty of love and an expectation of hard work. All of the children were expected to work in the family's restaurant/tavern. After years of running this small business, Joseph was able to afford an automobile and even had money to send back to his family in Kropa. Pauline's granddaughter, Mary (daughter of Elizabeth) wrote to her Uncle Art in the year 2000 with the discovery of documents that showed Pauline had sent $108 back to Kropa in the Great Depression. This incredible act of charity, was probably a months wages according to Mary and revealed the strength of their link to the Kropa family. Despite this family bond, neither Joseph nor Pauline ever returned to Slovenia. Only their children, Arthur, Olga and Elizabeth ventured abroad and rekindled the relationships that had been held by the fragile link of pen and ink. In his later years, Arthur mentioned that the Kropa relatives were eternally grateful for these acts of love and charity and this love was returned multi-fold over when he visited Kropa in the summer of 1951.
