WHEN POLAND comes to a standstill at noon today to remember President Lech Kaczynski and the other victims of last Saturday’s Russian air crash, one person won’t be joining in: his mother.
Jadwiga Kaczynska is seriously ill in hospital and, on medical advice, her son Jaroslaw Kaczynski has not informed her of Saturday’s crash that claimed the life of her other son, her daughter-in-law Maria and 94 others.
“Jadwiga keeps asking where Lech is,” said Adam Bielan, a close friend of the late president and MEP of his Law and Justice Party. “She is not able to leave the hospital, she is in a very serious condition and this kind of news could seriously harm her.”
The 83-year-old has been in a Warsaw hospital since March suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and is unable to breathe on her own.
Until last weekend, the twin brothers took turns staying at their mother’s bedside. Since last Saturday, Jaroslaw Kaczynski has visited her alone, spending several hours a day with her.
The brothers had planned to attend together the ceremonies at Katyn in western Russia to remember the massacre of 22,000 Poles by Russian forces in 1940.
Concerns about their mother’s ill health prompted Jaroslaw to stay behind.
Minutes after speaking to his brother by mobile phone on Saturday morning, the plane crashed outside the western city of Smolensk, near Katyn.
Tens of thousands of mourners continued to file past the coffins of the first couple in Warsaw’s presidential palace yesterday afternoon, with reported waiting times of up to 18 hours.
Up to one million mourners are expected for a memorial service in Warsaw while Krakow scrambles to get ready for Sunday’s funeral.
After a requiem Mass in St Mary’s church on the main square, a private funeral procession will move to Wawel Cathedral.
“The crypt is very small and, to ensure the ceremony is conducted in an honourable manner, we only want close family to take part,” said a government spokesman.
The first couple will be laid in an alabaster tomb in the vestibule of the crypt of Marshall Jozef Pilsudski, who re-established the second Polish republic in 1918.
A silent protest was held in Krakow’s old town square yesterday at the plans to bury the Kaczynskis in the Wawel crypt, until now reserved for wartime heroes, national poets and Polish kings.
Over 100 heads of state and government chiefs are expected, including President McAleese and her husband, Martin; President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle; Britain’s Prince Charles; Germany’s President Horst Köhler and Chancellor Merkel; Russian President Dmitry Medvedev; and the king and queen of Spain.
Uncertainty surrounded the ceremony after clouds of volcanic ash spreading across Europe yesterday closed nearly all of Poland’s airports yesterday – including Krakow airport. Authorities said they have contingency plans in place.
Foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski said he was confident the international guests would still make it, as “an expression of solidarity and respect for Poland and the tragedy it’s been through”.
