I've made contact with some of the Matulis family in Lithuania! And just in time, I'm headed over there in just one week. I got a couple mailing addresses from my grandmother (not her family, but she had kept Tevuk's address book), and I sent letters last week. I wasn't confident I'd get anything back because the addresses were probably about 20 years old! They even still had the Soviet-era postcodes. Fortunately, Pasvalys is small place and the old postcode didn't matter.
I had a Lithuanian friend here in Scotland translate my note, and I asked that they email me back. A cousin (second-cousin?), from my generation, wrote back just today. We've never met, but I have actually met her grandparents! She said her grandmother recalls meeting me in 1989 when they visited the United States. I was about 8 years old and living in Maryland at the time. I think they were driving with Tevuk and Chute from their house in New York to the their house in Florida (or the other way around) and they stopped in to see us. I didn't understand the significance of their visit at the time -- Lithuania was still under Soviet occupation! It was shortly before re-gaining independence, and travel restrictions must have been loosened. Their presence in the US would have actually been a really big deal! I can only imagine that the authorities (I mean the US authorities!) were watching them closely. Especially when Tevuk decided (probably on a whim) to drive them down the length of the eastern seaboard.
I'm really looking forward to meeting them!
