Keeping One Branch Green: A Novella

By Paulette Bilyieu Velho

Rich with imagery and emotion

Czarist Russia-the contrast between the Peasant of pre revolutionary Russia, the trials, tribulations and mind numbing constraints of life in Siberia/Russia. The final escape to the wilds of America, come alive in this easy read about "Povil". The telling of this fascinating 'novella' is both historical, while also beautifully personal and human.

Author Paulette Velho is the 'Singing Bird' for this 'Green Branch' of her family tree. The ability to weave the music of the old ways and constraining beliefs, with an enlightened wisdom, that helped 'Povil/Paul' escape his times and culture into a frightening and uncertain future when most other Russian families and Eastern Europeans were unable to act. His courage and spiritualism proved to be the "Keeping One Branch Green" and set in motion an extraordinary and inspirational life.

5 Star Review by Diana

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jan 18, 2010
• ISBN: 9781449017910

Paulette Bilyieu Velho

I am the author of Keeping One Branch Green, a novella. My cover designer described my book as an Old Man in the Sea type of tale. It's an easy read with a profound message. The book cover with a Russian church along with the title alludes to the fact that many perished in Eastern Europe, but not all. One branch of the family tree survived. It remains green and alive to this day. I received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Principia College in French and Fine Arts. Subsequently, I studied at several universities, in the field of education. I received my Professional Educator's Certificate twenty years ago and have enjoyed many years of teaching in public and charter schools in Florida. I am only child. I was born and raised in Scarsdale. New York, an affluent suburb of New York City. I am first generation American on my mother's side. My mother, Wanda Bilyieu, a signed and prolific artist, was born in Latvia. Bilyieu is my maiden name. I use it as part of my author's name. My father's upstate New York Irish and Huguenot family has lived in America for generations. They appear in the first Federal census of 1790 in Schoharie County, New York. I proudly have two grown sons, one resides in Florida and one lives in Pennsylvania, and I have two adorable grandsons. I enjoy taking the stories that I've heard all my life and weaving them into books. Keeping One Branch Green developed out of a magazine interview with my grandfather in December 1941. I had the article translated into English from Lithuanian and used it as a basis to weave a story, rich with emotion and detail. I am hopeful that my next book will be published in 2020. I hope you will enjoy reading it.

Book preview

© 2010 Paulette Bilyieu Velho. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 10/30/2021

ISBN: 978-1-4490-1789-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4490-1790-3 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4490-1791-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2010900399

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Excerpts from The Bronze Horseman are from a translation by Waclaw Lednicki, published by Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1955.

The Herman Gorter quote may be found at www.icelebz.com/quotes/herman_gorter (accessed July 8, 2009).

The Boris Pasternak quote may be found at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/b/boris_pasternak.html (accessed July 14, 2009).

The Nicholas II quote may be found at http://thinkexist.com/quotation/there-is-no-justice-among-men/530601.html (accessed July 3, 2009).

The Anton Chekhov quote may be found at http://www.notable-quotes.com/c/chekhov_anton.html (accessed July 3, 2009).

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Epilogue

Appendix

To my sons, Paul and Greg Velho,

who have blessed my life.

Introduction

I never met my grandfather Povilas Glemza. The only way I remember him is by his large portrait, painted by well-known New York artist, H. C. Wolcott. The portrait hung prominently in our living room. A little inscription at the bottom of the ornate, gold frame read Paul Glemza 1875–1943.

As a little girl, I would secretly enter the living room at night and turn on the spotlight over his picture. He seemed to come alive. I would stare into his azure eyes wondering who he really was, what adventures he had, and what secrets he died with. It was almost as if he were right there, encouraging and exhorting me, for what reason I wasn’t sure.

Next to the portrait stood a tall, formidable-looking, mahogany secretary desk from the 1930s. Inside, on one of its shelves, my mother kept a little rectangular-shaped wooden music box. It was protected from light and from dirt, as this was her memento of her father. She bought it for him when he lay dying in the hospital. Every so often she would get it down from the shelf, wind it, and let it play for me. After we listened to the tune, she opened the music box, revealing a red satin lined pocket. There, she had saved my grandfather’s last unopened package of Regent cigarettes, cork filtered and king size. A few loose dried Lucky Strikes lay inside as well. The cellophane still partially clung to the loose cigarettes. Alongside was the tiny baby bracelet I had worn in the Sarah Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville, New York. Then, after we shared these few moments, she placed the music box back on the shelf, hidden from sight, but as close to her heart as her treasured memories.

Could it be that my mother’s favorite phrase, Keep one branch green; the singing bird will come, had implications to my grandfather? Was he the only branch of the family tree to come to America? Did the others perish in Eastern Europe? Could I be the singing bird, perhaps a nightingale, lucky to be born in America, destined to reveal my grandfather’s story? Or was the singing bird just pure happiness and freedom?

Much later I learned my grandfather founded a company, American Radio Hardware Company, Inc., in Brooklyn, New York. Electrical items the company manufactured, especially J-38 keys, were used by the U.S. Army Signal Corps and aided the American war effort in the 1940s. Today, these keys are avidly sought after and collected. Ham radio operators are still using them. My grandfather’s company also designed and produced radio parts and short wave equipment for Emerson Radio and General Electric. He was a brilliant inventor, engineer, Russian naval officer, manufacturing giant and spiritual helper.

My grandfather’s life was revealed to me through an interview of him published by a Lithuanian magazine in December 1941. In 1999, I discovered this article among my mother’s belongings. I had it translated from Lithuanian to English, and, thus, it became the framework for this story. Herein, I have used his description of what life was like more than 135 years ago, leading up to the Russian Revolution. The names and places are real; the conversations are my own creations.

Povilas Glemza was a successful man of his day, though not a household name. My grandfather is, however, representative of all the men and women who desire freedom and are willing to endure a struggle to achieve it. Keep in mind what the early immigrants did to make America a great country.

The reader should be aware that I used the Lithuanian name Povilas instead of the English translation, which is Paul. Also, the Latvian town of Libau has several spellings, and it is referred to as Liepāja in this book.

I am living proof that by keeping one branch green, the singing bird will come.

Chapter 1

1889 Rokishkis, Lithuania

I nside his cold, stone castle, Lord Nicholas Serovich paced the floor while beating his hands across his chest to keep warm. He bit his lower lip and grimaced. Icy gusts of wind swung the black iron chandeliers back and forth so that candle wax dripped on the stone floor, making patches of sticky goop. Birch logs placed in the fireplace earlier by the servants were about to burn out; some had already turned to embers. The lord looked desperately across the kitchen to the dining room, where roughly carved chairs sat empty around a long table. He visualized the thirty or so party guests who, in their finery, would arrive at his castle in a few days for dinner and the annual Christmas ball, and yet, things were in such disarray.

"Kazimerias is late.