Finding community; forging on through setbacks

Highland News & Media

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00:00I'm Patricia Wlodzinski, born and bred in Inverness, mother was Polish, mother was from

00:11Inverness, and I have a shock now called Aternum.

00:16I was born with congenital hip disorder, so that's kind of meant a lot of operations over

00:21the years, and I almost fell in hospital when I was just a year and a half.

00:26So I didn't get out until almost nearly starting school.

00:29I loved Inverness, actually, I was never one of the ones that wanted to leave it, but once

00:34I went to Poland in my thirties for the first time, I fell in love with it.

00:38I just had this kind of moment where I thought, gosh, I felt as if I'd come home, and it was

00:43really bizarre.

00:44When I opened my first shop, Zayazel, which was up in the Crown area, where the drawing

00:49room is now, in fact, with the intention of bringing crafts over, and I never really thought

00:56about starting it, the first visit.

00:58I think it was the second or third one, but my ex-husband said to me, oh, it's not going

01:04to be a business, what do you want to take crafts over for?

01:08And I said, because people in Inverness don't believe me when I tell them all the lovely

01:12stuff that they're making here, because they're made from wood, they're made from glass, they're

01:16made from pottery.

01:17It turned into a Polish restaurant, and then in 2004, the people started coming in.

01:22I helped over a thousand people find jobs and accommodation for them, and I said, why

01:26are you all coming here?

01:27And they said, because the council and the job centres tell us to come here, because

01:33they can't understand us.

01:34So I phoned the council and I said, can you give me any funding?

01:37No, no, no, you don't tick any boxes, but you're doing a great job, carry on.

01:41Basically, we're just needing support, so I was giving them free coffee and my usual.

01:57But for the first time, I just felt the power of something, and it was really nice welcoming

02:07them all and knowing that they were friends, sorry.

02:14It was nice welcoming them and knowing that they were enjoying the Highlands so much that

02:20they started telling all their family and friends, and that thousand people became ten

02:25thousand at one time in Inverness.

02:31Do you want a tissue?

02:32No, I'm fine.

02:33I've got one.

02:34It became ten thousand, and then it reduced a little bit when we left the EU, and a lot

02:43of them went back.

02:44But I even got a letter from Poland.

02:47I dressed as Aya Zell in the Highlands, and it got to me.

02:50But I get that buzz now from the tourists coming in Inverness, because a lot of them

02:55are Germans, and my uncle lives in Germany, so I always say things to them, like, where

03:02are you from in Germany?

03:03Oh, my uncle's here, and then we talk about that.

03:06One day, in fact, this guy came in, he says, I'm a judge, and I've got a case to do in

03:15Selar next week, actually, so I'm going there.

03:18But it was just really nice, you know.

03:21There's connections.

03:22Yeah.

03:23Human connections.

03:24Exactly, and I love talking to people.

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