Classmates remember ‘Lolek’

THE world came to know Karol Wojtyla as Pope John Paul II, but Danuta Puklo remembers him as Lolek, the nickname for the generous boy who helped her pass a school test.

“We were going to take the graduation exam together, but I got cold feet and backed out,” recalled 84-year-old Puklo. “I met Karol on the street after his exam ... I said to him ‘Lolek, please help me’. He stayed up with me all night and helped me with the material.”

Right up until a few days before his death, the Pope kept in touch with school friends from his hometown of Wadowice. Their grief is compounded by sadness at their thinning ranks and the loss of the one person who served as the focus of their reunions over the years.

Wojtyla was one of 40 members of the Wadowice school class of 1938. A tearful Eugeniusz Mroz said he knows of only six survivors.

When Wojtyla was bishop of nearby Krakow, the old classmates gathered for dinner once a year before Christmas. “We sang songs, hiking songs and carols. Lolek especially loves carols,” Mroz said.

Jerzy Kluger was five when he met Wojtyla, who was six at the time.

“Even when he was a young boy, he would already show great concern for social equality, especially for the Jews,” said Mr Kluger, who is Jewish.

The two kept in touch, with Mr Kluger visiting the Vatican for dinner.

“His attitude toward his old friends never changed,” said another classmate, Stanislaw Jura of Krakow. “He treated us in the same way as if were again sitting on those school benches. Our friendship was always very important to him.”