I was raised by my grandmother during my waking hours, my first five years of life. She is a war refugee from Poland, who came to Ellis Island in 1950 from 10 miles west of the border with Ukraine. She was born in Chelm. When I grew up, we could not speak, because she knew no English. We see her cooking. in Boca Raton at her apartment. This was the first time, when I was 32, that we had our first conversation ever. This is how I became interested in language. She attended three years of school.