In 1990 I attended a conference for young Lithuanian professionals sponsored by the U.S. State Department. The featured speaker was Kazimiera Prunskienė, Lithuania’s first Prime Minister after its 1990 independence. Before we had our break, a State Department representative came on stage and asked if anyone knows of a high level translator capable of working in the White House. He asked us to take down a telephone number, which I did. A few minutes later I found a phone booth, called my mother and gave her the contact number. She was invited to Washington D.C. the next day to be interviewed, and of course, she was accepted with flying colors.
Article excerpt from Connecticut Magazine:
“Most would not guess that this small, quiet woman, a grandmother of five, who works seven days a week in a converted closet in the back of Cosmos, has served alongside presidents and prime ministers. She sits on two cushions on a swivel chair that faces
a desk made of several heights of filing cabinets over which rests a wooden board that serves as her desktop. In winter, a floor heater buzzes because the heating system doesn’t work properly in her little office.
She spends her days answering the questions of the many immigrants who line up outside her door, running a parcel service and continuing her involvement in the Hundred Club of Connecticut (which she and her husband founded in 1967 to support the families of slain police officers). And she helps out when things get busy in the store, arriving for work at 9 and staying sometimes till 11 p.m. if there is a late shipment. Retirement is not a consideration. “I really enjoy being in the store,” she says, downplaying her accomplishments and successes. “I needed to put six children through university. It’s just life.” Kingstone, L. (2003, November). Mrs. Anthony, The remarkable 20th-century tale of a west hartford grocer. Connecticut Magazine.
Written by: Ada E. Ustjanauskas, Ada and Antanas’s first born daughter.
