Leo and the Poppies

It wasn't remarkably beautiful.  It wasn't even signed.  It was a still life of poppies, red poppies filling and spilling over a bowl.  The frame was an old, burnished gold frame.  The picture had been my mothers.  She said that my great grandfather, Leo, had painted it.  She had a soft spot for this grandfather - the first spouse of Elsa Hedrich Spatz Koerner Haegeman. 

Somehow, I ended up with this picture.  In my mind, it simply wasn't attractive enough to hang, didn't fit with my "decor".  I pushed it from pillar to post for years.  Finally, approaching retirement and downsizing, I let it go to Goodwill.   I hope someone claimed it, gave it a loving home, especially now.

Fast forward to 2017 and my genealogy research has revealed that this great grandfather of mine was from Poland.  A connection on a Polish social media page was discussing poppies and their significance and connection to Poland.  Of course!  Those colorful native dress costumes are covered with embroidered poppies!  Well, turns out that the red poppy is the national flower of Poland.  It seems that after World War I, fields that had been run over by battles burst into bloom with poppies.  Since that time, the flower has become a symbol of that war.  Perhaps my great grandfather associated the picture with his homeland, with relatives who perhaps were lost in Poland during the war, or simply liked poppies.