Yolanda Flanagan - A Brief History

January 12th, 1946 – May 8^th, 2008 

            Yolanda Christina Flanagan passed away on May 8^th, 2008 at 1:48 a.m.  With her during the last few hours of her life were her ex-husband, Patrick J. Flanagan, her son-in-law, Joel Dario Sr., her daughters, Christina M. Dario and Denise A. Flanagan, and her three grandchildren, Olivia, Joel Jr., and Giselle Dario.  For the last three months of her life, she had moved back to the home of Pat Flanagan at 2170 Cartwright Road, Virginia City Highland Ranches, Reno, Nevada.  This is an attempt to try to record the most significant events in her life and to try to preserve a record for posterity.  We have tried as much as possible to make sure that all recorded is as accurate as possible.  One memorable event: the next morning after Yolanda had been taken for cremation and the hospital bed had been removed, Olivia said when she got up, “Grandma went to heaven.”  Yolanda died after about a three year battle with liver cancer which also progressed into bone cancer.  There was no history of these cancers in her family.  She donated her body to the University of Nevada, Reno for medical research and was eventually cremated.  UNR does a memorial every year for all donors.

Early Beginnings

            Yolanda was born on January 12^th, 1946 at Ancona, Italy to Chester (Czeslaw) Seyfert (Sejfert) and Roma Seyfert (Funk).  Her birth was at the 8^th British Army’s Polish attached military hospital where her grandfather, Colonel Funk was the director and professional doctor.  As a result, she did not have a birth certificate from Italy, Britain, or Poland.  She was stateless.  During the delivery, Colonel Funk ordered his men to stand in formation during labor until Yolanda was born.  As it was a long labor, some men did not make it and fainted in place.

            Roma, her mom, spent all the war years in Poland and toward the end of the war married Chester.  At the beginning of WWII, Yolanda’s grandfather  had been deported to Russia, survived a number of communist massacres, and escaped back to join the Polish 2^nd Corp. of the 8^th Army under General Anders.  Sometime during this period, Chester’s family was caught hiding Jews in Warsaw from the Germans.  One of the Jews got caught by the German soldiers, led them to Chester’s house and all the Jews in hiding along with Chester’s family, except for his mother and Chester, were shot by the Germans in the street.  A lot of what happened here explains Yolanda’s later feelings toward the Jewish race and the fact that many Polish tried to help save Jews during the German occupation and lost their lives as a result.

            As the war was coming to an end, both Chester and Roma escaped to Austria and from there walked to Italy to join Roma’s father while she was pregnant with Yolanda.  The first entry point was Ancona where Roma’s father was in charge of the field hospital.

            At this time, Chester was in training in Rome to become an officer, around October of 1945, and it was here that Chester met John (Janusz) and Barbara (Basia) Meyerhoff who remained friends for many many years later.

          When the war finally ended, Chester and Roma, along with Roma’s father and Yolanda went to England to avoid being displaced back to Poland, and, from there, they emigrated in April of 1948 to Buenos Aires, Argentina.  Chester had applied to the U.S. for emigration but had been refused.  They could not go back to Poland as Roma’s father had title as a baron and all nobility were imprisoned by the Communists in their takeover of Poland.  It would have been a death sentence to go back.  Yolanda never lost her sense of nobility and title, and she loved reading about Princess Diana, the Royal Family in England and how it reminded her of her heritage.

          Around 1952/1953, Roma and Chester divorced, with Chester taking custody of Yolanda.  Roma subsequently remarried to Henri (Henryk) Sikorski and stayed deeply in love with Henri until he died.  After the divorce, Chester took Yolanda to Port of Spain, Trinadad where he worked and lived on a fishing boat for about 9 months with Yolanda, and then they returned to Buenos Aires where he worked for a while as an accountant.  This was Yolanda’s first experience with the “dark race” as she called them.  On the trip back to Argentina, Yolanda stopped at Montevideo, Uruguay, Rio de Janeiro, Copacabana in Brazil and Barbados.  She was truly international by this time.  Back in Argentina, she finished her years in grammar school and started her first year in high school.  Finally they were given immigration status to the U.S. and moved to Grass Valley, California in 1960.  They came to the U.S. on a Japanese ship, visited Victoria and Santos in Brazil, Christobol in Panama, went through the Panama Canal and arrived at San Pedro, California.

          Chester got a job at the Feather River Inn as the head accountant.  Yolanda by this time was starting high school, and she boarded at Mt. St. Mary‘s Academy in Grass Valley.  This was where she was taught by Sister Mary Ernest who she maintained contact with up until Yolanda passed away.  St. Mary’s stopped being a boarding school and convent soon after Yolanda graduated.  Half of it today is a museum and hasn’t really changed much.  Right before Yolanda got real ill, she went and visited Sister Mary Ernest in Omaha.

One interesting point: Roma came from quite a family.  Her father was an unbelievable soldier and received many medals during the WWII.  Yolanda was able to get all of the medals from England right before she passed away.  It is very probable that Roma might have been related to Jan Jozef Ignacy Lukasiewicz, a Polish pharmacist who first distilled kerosene and was the founder of the Polish oil industry.  Roma mentioned this often over the years.  He invented the kerosene lamp, and founded the first oil well and oil refinery in Poland.

 College Years

            Yolanda went to Lone Mountain (San Francisco College for Women) and majored in Russian.  For the four years, she lived in the dormitories even though her father was then living near the beach in San Francisco.  Generally she had good grades and particularly did well in Russian.  The University was just a few blocks away from the University of San Francisco where Pat went  and the two schools often jointly sponsored “mixers” and dances as Lone Mountain was only a woman’s college and USF was still pretty much a men’s

            It was here at a mixer in her sophomore year that she met Pat.  Pat was at one of the mixers one night and was looking for a rich woman to date and maybe finally get married.  Lone Mountain had a lot of rich families sending their daughters there, like Bob Hope and other famous people.  He was immediately taken off-guard by her European accent, her poise and how beautiful she was.  They continually dated for the rest of their college years, and Pat proposed to her in their senior year.  He asked her to “go steady” in their Junior year which was kind of like an “engagement”.  Pat still thought her family had a lot of money.

            During those years, Yolanda worked at a donut shop about 2 blocks away from the University.  She was actually working her way through college by working, some scholarships, some money from her father and a large U.S. government student loan.  Pat was in for a surprise. 

Marriage

            Pat proposed to Yolanda at Land’s End one night out near the San Francisco Beach which they both loved.  In that senior year, they both took a number of courses in Existential Literature at the University of Calif. Extension in San Francisco.  They both had a great time talking about the course afterwards and having to read the same books at the same time.  Yolanda and Pat really didn’t have a lot of money in those days, so Yolanda began sewing her own wedding dress and veil.  The veil was unbelievable and took many hours to make; some of Yolanda’s friends also helped.  They got married after graduation on August 5^th, 1967 and went on their honeymoon to the Feather River Inn.  Yolanda’s father had paid for most of the cost of the honeymoon, and the reception was at Pat’s parents’ house in San Leandro.  Lots of Korbel champagne and good food.  True to the traditions of those days, they were both virgins up until the time they married.  That, in itself, was somewhat unusual even in those days. 

            Prior to the wedding, Pat and Yolanda got into a big argument with the Catholic Church in San Francisco.  First, they wanted Father Monihan from USF to say the mass, and the mass was to be in Latin.  The parish priest fought against having a Jesuit priest in his church and also was against the Latin mass which had recently been discouraged by the 2^nd Vatican Council.  Both fought for Father Monihan and for the Mass.  A generous donation to the church seemed to solve the problem.  Father Monihan remained a good friend of both up until he died.  He was in charge of the Gleason Library at USF and was an extremely brilliant man.  He often came to dinner and always mesmerized Yolanda as to the extent of his experiences and knowledge in books.  He always complimented Yolanda on her culinary skills.

            They moved into their first apartment on 14^th Street in San Leandro, right next door to a bar called the “Sneaky Tiki”.  About this time, Pat started getting his draft notice for the armed services.  They were married for 25 years before they got a divorce.

The War Years

            After graduation, Pat knew he had to go into the armed services.  The draft was still in effect in those days.  He applied and got accepted into the Air Force to become a jet pilot.  However, now that they were married, he decided that five years in the Air Force wasn’t worth it, he wanted to get back to work with his father in the fish business to make some money for the family, and he decided to let the government draft him even though he was able to defer due to the Air Force acceptance.  They thought with his experience in accounting and his degree in accounting, the Army would put him into clerical and it was only for two years instead of five.  At that time, he had been working for a CPA in San Leandro, had a good job offer with Caterpillar in accounting, but he really loved working in the fish plants.  On February 14^th, 1968, Valentine’s Day, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and inducted.  That was a very sad and miserable day for Yolanda as she was going to be on her own now for the next two years.  Soon after, she moved back to San Francisco to be close to her friends.  One of them was Carolyn Nelson whose husband, Jim Nelson was Pat’s roommate at USF, and they had gotten married right after college also.  Jim was also drafted into the Army and was stationed for the two years in South Korea.

            Those years were tough; just the separation alone was brutal.  Yolanda got work at Kaiser, and Pat’s almost entire paycheck from the Army went home to help her pay the bills.  Pat as a private was only making about $150.00 per month; when he finally got shipped to Viet Nam, he also got battle pay which raised that to about $250.00 a month.  During that time, Yolanda came to visit Fort Lewis in Washington for Pat’s graduation from basic training, and then also visited him at Fort Polk, Louisiana for advanced infantry training; they both knew by that time where he was going and it certainly wasn’t going to be in a clerical office.

            Much is often made about the men who go to war.  Not enough is said about the wives who are left behind.  The loneliness, need to pay bills, work, and fear of the unknown; nobody gives enough credit to the women.  Letters went back and forth between the two during those years and two R&R’s at Hawaii which were great until the day that they ended and Pat again had to leave for Viet Nam. 

Work at Kaiser Aluminum & Chemicals

            Once Yolanda had graduated from Lone Mountain, she had a hard time getting a job.  For a while, she had small jobs just to make money.  Finally, through the kindness and help of Teresa Pucci, who was a corporate executive at Kaiser and a friend of the Flanagans (her husband was part owner in Joe Pucci & Sons Fish Company), Yolanda got a job at Kaiser Aluminum & Chemicals, Engineering Division as a secretary.  Eventually, she began using her knowledge of Russian and Polish and translated scientific documents for Kaiser.  She made a decent wage but nothing realistic in relation to the quality of translation that she had been doing for Kaiser which was very technical.  It was at Kaiser that Yolanda met Nella Dornbos around 1968. 

            Yolanda liked to joke around.  One such instance Nella recounts:

“She was quite a prankster.  I remember one April fool’s day she hid a secretary’s (Nella’s ???) typewriter before starting time, and when the poor girl arrived she was at a loss as to what happened.  After a while a lot of people were looking for the typewriter, including some of the bosses.  After becoming quite nervous and realizing things had gotten out of hand, Yolanda had to “fess up.”  I believe she was mildly reprimanded, but her friends enjoyed the experience immensely.”

One of the other instances worth remembering was when Pat got discharged from the Army.  He had extended in Viet Nam in order to get out of the service five months early.  Pat felt somewhat safe in those days as the U.S. was starting to pull back and he was then stationed in a large Army base called Anh Khe working in the PX system.  As it worked out, he was discharged earlier than expected so he thought he would surprise Yolanda and not tell her when he was going to come home.

The discharge procedures took about two days at Fort Lewis, Washington.  Pat didn’t sleep at all during that time; he was too excited at getting home safely and being back again with his wife.  He finally arrived at San Francisco Airport, took a cab to where Yolanda was living.  It was about 10 p.m. at night; when he got there, she wasn’t home.  Some neighbors told Pat she had decided to spend the night with one of her friends, Nella, from work but they didn’t know where that was.  By this time, Pat was exhausted, tried to get a motel room twice to get some rest, and was refused because of his uniform.  Many were against the war in those days, and particularly so in San Francisco.

As a result, he then decided to take the bus to Oakland where he knew there was a restaurant, Biff’s, which was open all night.  He would stay there all night, drinking coffee, and then walk a few blocks to Kaiser Center to finally surprise Yolanda when she came to work.

The next morning he did just that, and Nella Dornbos remembers that day very well:

“Also, I will never forget your return from Vietnam.  Somehow word had gotten to me that you were in the Kaiser Center lobby, and that I was supposed to send her down without letting on what joy would await her when she stepped off the elevator.  I very mistakenly (and stupidly) told her someone downstairs in uniform was here to see her, and of course she rushed down thinking the worst—that you had been injured or killed and that someone was here to inform her.  Thankfully, she forgave me and very happily brought you upstairs to introduce you to her co-workers.”  

Yolanda as Mom

          Once they were back together again, they started to save money; Pat was working at the fish company and Yolanda was doing well at Kaiser.  They moved into a new apartment in the Irving District of San Francisco; Jim and Carolyn Nelson also were reunited again and moved also a few blocks away.  It was time for both to begin starting their families and pay off all the student loans that Yolanda had accumulated.  By this time, Pat knew she wasn’t one of those wealthy girls from Lone Mountain, but he didn’t care.  She was still very unusual and beautiful.  He always loved her accent and she was very smart.  She began playing Chess by mail and became very good at it; she was rated nationally.  John Meyerhoff said she was very good at Chess even as a young girl.  Both loved to read and life was enjoyable and simple.  Often they went to the beach at Pescadero and would spend the whole day, drinking, swimming and finally a barbecue before going home.

          Yolanda got pregnant and Christina was born at Kaiser Hospital on Geary Blvd. in San Francisco.  They had to buy a home and finally found a house on 32^nd and Noriega.  They paid about $32,000.00 for a two bedroom, one bath home that had a nice view of the ocean on a clear day in the Sunset District.  Pat and Yolanda created a brick terrace in the backyard with a beautiful garden that Yolanda planted.

          During those years, Pat worked at the fish plant and Yolanda worked typing for a business from out of the house and raising Christina.  They pretty much spent their weekends playing Bridge with Jim and Carolyn who were also raising their two sons, Gregory and Zachary.  Weather was cold and damp in the Avenues, and Christina often got sick, even pneumonia.  Yolanda, being an only child, she studied avidly about raising kids in those days and worried every time Christina got sick.  She wanted to be the perfect mom.  We debated and questioned endlessly on Dr. Spock’s advice on raising kids.

          Then it was time for Denise.  They needed a new home that was bigger and started looking in San Francisco.  Finally, Yolanda, on her own, found their dream house in Alameda, Spanish in design, which they both fell in love with, and the price was right.  They sold the house in San Francisco for about $50,000.00 and bought the house on 1246 Hawthorne St. in Alameda for $70,000.00.  Denise was born at Kaiser Hospital in Oakland.  It was a kind of long labor, but not as long as Christina’s which lasted over 12 hours.

          Yolanda continued to work, sometimes at the fish plant, until the birth of Clientell where she worked the rest of her life for Peta and other non-profits out of her home.  This way she was always around and available to the kids as they grew up.  The children were always her first priority.  Yolanda was really talented in crafts and made flowers out of paper tissue; then the kids would take them to Fisherman’s Wharf and sell them.  She often sewed her own clothes from patterns and made clothes for the kids, including Halloween costumes and new outfits for Barbie.

          She did all of the normal things that moms do, girl scouts, selling girl scout cookies, dance lessons, and, most of all, making sure that they were getting a good education.  For a few years, she would host a “Round the Town” luncheon each year to raise money for the school.  She would worry so much that everything had to be just right, and it usually was, the décor and the food, mostly seafood.  It was always a big hit in the community.  Education was the most important and the need to read a lot.

          Perhaps the high point was her realization that the kids were not being well educated at St. Joseph’s Grammar school in Alameda.  Denise was having problems, and the kids just weren’t being challenged.  She then studied how to measure attainment levels in education, organized a meeting at her house for all of the school’s parents, and brought to their attention that the kids in school were not being educated at the proper levels.  This caused a major uproar at the school and it soon became apparent that both Christina and Denise had to change schools.  We were not welcome at St. Joseph’s anymore.  As a result, Denise went to Bentley in Berkeley, then onto CPS, and Christina went to Drew High School in San Francisco.  The best decision that could have been made for both of them.  Cost was no object; in fact, their secondary schooling cost almost as much or more than sending them both to college.

          Catherine Cavanaugh remembers those days very well:

            “I first knew of the inner qualities, determination and dedication that Yolanda had while working with her at St. Joseph’s Elementary School.  Yolanda led a drive, albeit not at all popular and well received, to improve the standard of education for our children.”

          The movement failed, and Christina and Denise then went on to better academic schools for their remaining education.  For Yolanda, education was very important, and she was constantly encouraging the kids to learn and read.  As the kids were growing up, she made them memorize all the countries and capitals of the world at that time.  Then she would quiz them as they drove up to the cabin in Woodfords.

          She was always trying to teach the kids etiquette and manners which wasn’t easy with Pat around.  She thought that appearances had to be kept and real, not faked as a part of civility.  Pat always had to wear a suit for various occasions and the girls had to wear dresses.  Of course, Pat didn’t help much in this area.

          I can’t resist this story: Christina had been spending an overnight with some of her friends from school.  During that night, as teen-age girls will do, they proceeded to get into trouble.  Christina had taken a recorder, pretending to be a reporter and quizzed all the girls about their sexual experiences.  Well, somehow the tape got into the hands of the school.  The head sister of the school called in all the parents and individually made them all listen to the tape before determining a punishment for all the girls.  Pat and Yolanda sat there and listened to the tape.  Afterward, the nun asked Pat and Yolanda what they thought about the incident.  Pat quickly answered, since Christina never recounted her experiences, and only interviewed the girls, “Sister, do you think I have a possible Barbara Walters in our family?”  That did not go off well at all.  Frankly, the tape was pretty tame, but Yolanda was furious with Pat for embarrassing her.  Inside, Pat thought the whole incident was hilarious, but Christina still had to be on restriction.  She was right and Pat, as usual, was wrong.  God bless her.  Yolanda always had trouble with Pat’s weird sense of humor.

          Part of Yolanda’s belief in raising families was tradition in trying to build strong family ties and friendships.  She was very orientated to the community, whether it be Alameda or internationally Poland.  One of those traditions came on Christmas.  One tradition was elaborate Christmas dinners with red beet soup (Borsht; in Polish: Barszcz), the exchanging of the wafer-like hosts sent from Poland, and usually a crazy Polish guest, Mr. Suchecki, who ate everything that was left when we were all finished eating.  Christmas Eve was always seafood and no meat by Catholic tradition.  Often for Christmas, the family would go to the Mannix’s for Christmas Eve or to the Cavanaugh’s.  Then, near midnight, the “Flanagan’s would leave ‘early’ in time to attend a Latin Midnight Mass. (Catherine Cavanaugh)  Often, Yolanda would take photos of Christina and Denise that were so good, they looked professional.

          Another special day was Halloween.  Yolanda would work all day decorating the front entrance of the Alameda House, putting dry ice in the fish pond to make an eerie smoke to scare the kids trick or treating.  She had a tape with screams and howls, creaking doors.  Spiders and cob webs all over that the kids would have to walk under.  Most of those years, she also would make the kids home-made costumes for the night like dressing them up as playing cards.  Then Pat would have to put on her black graduation gown, a scary mask, and terrify the kids all through the night.  For years, kids came just to be scared, and, for Yolanda, everything had to be just right to do that.  Often the kids would run off for a block before they could calm down.  It was one of her most favorite holidays. 

The Cabin

            Yolanda always was a big believer in the healing of “solitude”.  So when they built the cabin at 401 Crystal Springs Road in Woodfords, it was the perfect place for solitude and to try to reassess and take inventory of oneself.  Many summers she would go there with the kids, sometimes by herself, and listen to the constant sound of the West Fork of the Carson River just a few steps away.  No television, just board games like Parchessi, Canasta to play with the kids and lots of reading, sitting by the fireplace.  Lots of good friendships there also.  Judge Moore and his wife, a judge who never got his law degree, but used common sense in his rulings.  Al and Jean Watt, and their two sons, Brian and Don.  Judge Hillary Cook and his wife, they all lived within the Crystal Springs Campground community.

            It was a great place for the kids to play down by the river, and to take dark walks at night down to the bridge, wondering if there were any monsters lurking.  Or to watch for satellites and shooting stars.  And it was close to gambling in Carson which she loved.  Dollar Machines.  One night she won thousands at Sharkey’s Casino in Gardnerville; she was afraid that Sharkey’s henchmen were going to rob her as she went out to the car as Sharkey didn’t like paying out a lot of money.  Most of the time though she ended up putting most of the money back when she won.

            Al and Jean were a lot of fun since Al had been on a submarine in WWII, then became a spy for the U.S. in India, and finally ended up being a Vice-President for Boeing.  His twin brother also was a VP at Boeing.  Al had also been associated with the Skunkworks so he had a lot of secrets in his head.  She was fascinated with Al’s tales of spying in India.  Before Al retired, he was Boeing’s lobbyist in Washington trying to fund projects like the Space Shuttle.

            Then also down the street was Mr. Powers.  He was the head engineer for Harrah’s in Tahoe.  His son Reagan got married in the canyon and the neighborhood had a great wedding down at their house.  Reagan was the same age as Brian and Don Watts; so they all kind of hung around together.  Reagan was a good kid and very intelligent so Yolanda liked them all.  Reagan is a very successful attorney today in Seattle.

            Brian also got married up there to Susan; the wedding was at the Lake and Susan was great with the kids, always doing fun things.  Both Brian and Susan were working in the casinos dealing Black Jack and Yolanda would often go to gamble at the Lake to see them both.  Tragically, Susan unexpectedly committed suicide which was a very traumatic event for everyone.  Brian later remarried to a wonderful woman and they have an autistic son whom they love very much and enjoy.  Brian was always happy and “go-lucky” despite the difficulties in his life.  He had loved Susan very much but finally got back to rebuilding his life.

            Lots of barbecues at the cabin with the neighbors and yet there was always the silence for solitude and reading good books.  Once in a while there would be excitement too like the day a 5.0 earthquake hit in the area and one could see landslides coming down from the mountain, or the Acorn fire which lasted weeks and many cabins were lost, but 401 Crystal Springs managed to survive.  For a while, there was no oxygen in the canyon due to the fire and paint on the fire engines blistered from the heat, but the volunteers fought hard to save the homes.  And then there were the bears; one came right up to the house and Yolanda had to scare him off.  She was all by herself when that happened, but was very brave and took the bear on.

            One year a very intense snow storm hit.  Terenia Meyerhoff was staying up here during the Faukland War, and Yolanda was with Roma and the two kids.  We all decided to take a chance and drive out through Hwy. 80 to get back to the Bay Area.  It turned out to be the wrong time, and we had to stop at Boomtown in Reno to spend the night.  Naturally we had the cats with us also.  Yolanda and Roma hid the cats in suitcases and snuck them into the hotel room to spend the night.  No way would she leave them in the car.  Everything went fine except for the mewing in the elevators.  As always, Yolanda loved her cats.

            Yolanda used to spend a lot of time with her mother at the cabin also.  After Henri had died, Roma had moved to Alameda to live close to Pat and Yolanda.  She was quite a lady.  When Roma died, Pat buried her ashes under a tree near the cabin as it was so peaceful there and a place that Roma loved as much as Yolanda.

            Years later, the Cavanaugh’s moved to Gardnerville for retirement.  This was after Yolanda’s divorce and she had sold the house in Alameda to live at the cabin.  They used to visit back and forth, like in the old days, and one night Yolanda and Catherine went to the Serbian Dinner at Sharkey’s, a yearly event.  Sharkey Berkovich always did this on Little Christmas in honor of his parents.  They both had a great time eating the strange things that Sharkey would prepare from his culture, and it was kind of a typical experiment for Yolanda.  She always respected people’s cultures and roots and loyal to her friendships.  And gambling at Sharkey’s. 

Espionage and World History

            She was always very passionate about her causes...collected tons of articles about the issues that she was interested in and was amazing in how she discovered things to help her causes.  I guess a lot of this goes back to her early life and history.  She always really wanted to be a spy; another reason why she took Russian as her major.  She hated communism and was driven to see Poland again free.  It was her heritage and she was inspired by her grandfather’s nobility.

            During those years, Congressman McDonald, a staunch anti-Communist, was shot down by the Russians over the Arctic Circle.  She had been working with him on the movement to “Renounce the Yalta Agreement”.  She was so upset over this incident that she actively protested in front of the Russian consulate in San Francisco, even bringing the kids so that they would learn how to protest and fight for justice.  One day the protest got out of hand and the police came in to break it up.  It got a bit violent, but she got out early with the kids before it got to be too dangerous.  The Russians always said the plane crash was an accident but Yolanda never once believed them.

            Another event was the Falkland War against the Argentines by the British.  At that time, Terenia Meyerhoff had been visiting and, because of her British and Argentine passports, her parents were worried about her re-entering Argentina after her visit.  As a result, Terenia stayed illegally with Pat and Yolanda during the war until it was again deemed safe for her to return.  At the same time, Pat was dealing with an international consultant for maritime, Eric Norgaard.  Eric came to Pat with drawings of a port in Argentina’s south for his opinion on the designs for a fishing port.  Immediately Pat noticed that the harbor had a dredged depth that was very deep and it was obviously being designed as a submarine base.  At that time, Argentina was on the outs with the U.S. because of the war.  Yolanda immediately figured out it had to be the Russians wanting a base in Argentina close to the Antarctic.  She also knew that top secret facilities were in the Antarctic to help in fighting a nuclear war.  They wrote to John Meyerhoff in Buenos Aires to ask if he could check this out.  John sent back pictures of ships in the Argentine ports where the Russian emblems had been painted over, but painted over so bad that one could still see the emblems.  Obviously the Russians were using the war and its opportunity to try to get a strategic naval base there, close to the Antarctic.  Yolanda called in the CIA and presented all the evidence.  They confirmed that financing for the fishing port had been pulled by the U.S. to Argentina until they ended the war with England.  In the meantime, Pat was very close to the chair of Bank of America.  He had a meeting with the CEO and explained the problem with the Russians providing funding for a Russian port in Argentina and the seriousness of this to U.S. security.  Thanks to the help of the CIA and Bank of America, funding for the fishing port was again reinstated with favorable terms, the Russians were kicked out and the problem was solved.  Eventually the war ended, but Yolanda lost friends on both sides, English and Argentine.  She understood very well the real reasons for the war thanks to her education in Argentina.

            Another event was Yolanda’s work with the FBI regarding spies coming into the U.S as exchange students and going to the University of California in Berkeley to get access to naval architecture and other secret research being done at the University.  She had another friend who worked at the Lawrence Livermore laboratories, and her friend Jadwiga who owned a Polish restaurant near the University where a lot of students went to eat dinner.  Working with the FBI, Yolanda hosted a lot of cocktail parties for Polish exchange students at the house and at Jadwiga’s restaurant.  Often FBI agents attended these parties also.  Though the FBI wouldn’t confirm it, many students were stopped from getting access to critical information and even sent back to Poland for various reasons.

            But perhaps the most important thing she did was to become the Northern California representative for Solidarity in Poland and her ongoing fight to “Renounce Yalta”.   She raised money to help Polish refugees who had sought asylum in the U.S. and to resettle in the Bay Area.  The kids often had dinner with many of these people and thought they were all crazy.  Often coded phone calls were made from the house to Poland to transfer information back to Poland.  Often one heard clicks on the phone and Yolanda figured out that somehow the Russians were tapping in to these calls; sometimes the calls would be disconnected.  She continued to keep the CIA informed because they all felt that spies had also come in under the guise of asylum and Solidarity was very concerned about this.

            As part of this support, the American branch of Solidarity undertook the move to “Renounce Yalta” which gave Poland to Russia.  The movement was really orchestrated by Adam Kiernik in Los Angeles and whose father worked at the U.N.  Yolanda sent tons of letters and raised money for politicians favorable to the movement.  They constantly had to fight the State Dept. who wanted to appease the Russians and found the movement as destabilizing.  The resolution got to a vote in Congress I think twice but failed both times.  Still it was a symbol of support for Polish independence.  Yolanda never gave up on this effort.

            As part of this effort was a very bold move by Lech Welesa and Poland’s Solidarity.  It was top secret and a stroke of genius.  Somehow Adam Kiernik got a long list of all Polish and Russian press, government officials and other important Communist people and their home addresses.  The list was smuggled into the U.S. by Solidarity cells until it reached Adam Kiernek who hand delivered the list to Yolanda.  He knew that Yolanda had Clientell at that time and could send out a mass mailing to all of the people on the list.  They drafted a letter to them all, asking them to defect to the U.S. when they came for the Olympics in Los Angeles.  The letter gave them directions on how they could safely defect and went to hundreds of key people in Russia and Poland.  The Russian government found out and then boycotted the Olympics to prevent a massive defection.  They came out real strong against the U.S. government for interfering with Russia.  Naturally the U.S. government had no idea of what they were talking about.  After the letters went out, the list was burned as Adam Kiernek ordered as he was afraid it would be a help to the Russians in figuring out how this list got into Solidarity’s hands.   I remember how many hours Yolanda worked on this and I was shocked at the boldness of Solidarity.  As it all unfolded, it became a major victory for Solidarity and really undermined Russia’s confidence in being able to control Poland.  What I couldn’t figure out is how they got the list which was so comprehensive.

            It wasn’t until a few years later, after Poland had again achieved independence, that it all became clear.  A top Polish bureaucrat, Ambassador Rurash, had gained unbelievable access to the Russian complex.  He was one of very few allowed into the Russian simulations for an attack against Germany and Europe.  He was the one who got access to the list and smuggled it out; it then went through many Polish cells of Solidarity until it eventually reached Adam.  Rurash was a spy for Solidarity against the Russians.  As the Russians got close to discovering him, when he was the Polish ambassador to Japan, he then attempted to defect to the U.S. with his family.  That shows how highly trusted he was by the Russians.  It was very unusual that an ambassador be allowed to take his family to foreign countries as a way of controlling them.  Despite all the screw-up’s by the U.S. State Dept., the ambassador was successful in his defection.  For many years in the U.S., he and his family were sought by the KGB to be killed.  It was one of the most important defections in U.S. history.  Ambassador Rurash was brought into the Pentagon to explain Russian plans to attack Europe.  Against U.S. computer simulations, the Ambassador was able to beat the U.S. plans for defense and showed how ill prepared the U.S. was in any response.

            Now, how do I know all of this?  Well, during those years after his defection, the Ambassador was asked to give a speech at the World Affairs Council in San Francisco.  He was still under U.S protection and he asked to be able to stay at the Flanagan’s house in Alameda during the trip.  Upon arrival at San Francisco airport, the Russians tried to kidnap him and his wife but were thwarted by the FBI agents protecting him.  He safely made his speech and stayed with the Flanagan’s for a number of days for dinner and safety.  Our phone lines were tapped and agents stayed nearby to protect him.  It was one night that we were having drinks and we talked about the letters regarding the Olympic defections.  It was then that the Ambassador revealed that he was the one who had gotten the list and smuggled it out.  Then we told him it was Yolanda who had sent the letters out.  He immediately wanted to see all the computer systems that made up Clientell and now all the pieces of the puzzle were in place.  It became apparent that totalitarianism could not withstand the power of the computer, which governments who banned computers to protect the government could not survive in a modern world.  They no longer could control freedom of information.  What a night that was and all by pure chance.  It changed the course of history and was the beginning of the fall of Communist Russia’s domination of the countries it had invaded after WWII.  Poland and many others were free to become democratic again.  Adam is writing a book on all of these efforts and many others by Solidarity; I doubt very much if it will ever be published and that is so sad.  And now the kids should know why so many crazy Polish people came to Yolanda for dinner.  Through it all, Yolanda had an impossible dream that did come true.

            Even up to her death, she continued on with her causes.  In the end, she became very concerned over the Israeli treatment of Palestinians and the turmoil in Israel.  She became a very staunch supporter of the Arabs.  She used the internet in many novel ways to preach the cause of Palestine.  Many might call her very anti-Semitic because of her beliefs.  I would not.  She had very good arguments for her positions which even I might say were radical.  She donated money to help the cause of Palestinian refugees; often I would worry about this because of the U.S. attitudes after the Sept. 11^th attack.  She often pointed out the Israeli attack against American naval ships in the Mediterranean even though they were our ally.  Yes, she was very radical in these areas, perhaps even wrong in some cases, but that was her position and she stuck to it no matter what might be the consequences.  What I must say is that she was probably more right than she might have been wrong.  She did get responses back from Yasir Arafat’s secretary who urged her to keep up the fight.  Only history will tell if she was right in her beliefs.  I still have to admire her for her strength and convictions. 

Yolanda’s Life and Work with PETA

            Yolanda always loved animals.  As the kids were growing up, she often let them bring in a wounded bird and try to help save them.  Often, they took in strays like Farfy which was a female cross Irish Setter/Labrador that they found at the Woodfords cabin.  Farfy was big, and when they got her home, also pregnant.  She had a litter of dogs which Yolanda finally found homes for.  Farfy finally had to go to a home with lots of space to run, and later saved a young child at Lake Tahoe from drowning.

            Yolanda began working with PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) around 1985 or 1986.  PETA was founded in 1980 and started out as a very small non-profit organization committed to animals and their care.  Yolanda used her company, Clientell, to handle direct mail solicitation for donations to PETA as well as other non-profits, but PETA was her major client.  She worked for PETA up until her cancer had progressed to the point that she couldn’t work anymore, almost 23 years.  During that time, it was estimated by Scott, her supervisor, that she raised over $100,000,000 for the cause of PETA.

            Scott said, “She was an incredibly hard and devoted worker with amazing attention to detail.  In all of my time working with her, there were not even 10 mistakes and they were always minor ones.  That is an astonishing track record.  She was as close to perfection as a human being can get.  I also will never forget being at her house in Alameda in 1989, one October afternoon when a World Series game was going on.  I had just finished hand signing 1000+ letters and headed home to San Francisco across the Cypress (freeway) structure and the Bay Bridge.  I made it home and the (Loma Prieta) earthquake immediately hit.  It took a day or so for me to contact Yolanda----she was terrified that I had been killed getting home!  Dozens of people on that highway, as you know, didn’t make it.  I was very lucky---and thanks to Yolanda’s attention to detail and thoroughness, I left there earlier than I planned.  So, in a real way, I have always thought she saved my life.  True story.”

            Yolanda handled the mailing of thousands of personalized letters, some mailings in the 20,000 range, which were totally personalized, hand-stamped, and sealed, often with various inserts, and all psychologically profiled to encourage donations.  Some of the people who donated due to these letters were Pamela Anderson, movie star, the Golden Girls from the TV series, Jamie Lee Curtis, movie star and daughter of Tony Curtis and many more.

            During those years, PETA grew from a very small organization to a world-wide and well known animal rights group; much of that growth being financed through Yolanda’s efforts in fund raising. 

Last Thoughts of Yolanda

            In the last few weeks of Yolanda’s life, she continued to write in her notebooks, made up my grocery lists and my “to do” lists, among other things that she wanted to remember.  I found one page as I was doing this biography and thought I would include them here as her parting thoughts to us all:

“The closer one is to God, the happier one is, and the faster one hurries to meet Him.”

“It is a pity that the world has lost all sense of God; they have no reason to live anymore.”

“When you abolish the thought of God, why should you go on living on this earth?”

“All God’s actions are in our best interest because everything that happens in God’s will only happen for the well being of our soul.”

Ending Comments

            I am sure there are many other memories which I have not included here and a number of friends that I have not mentioned.  As it is, this was quite a substantial task and I’ve tried my best to be accurate and truthful to the best of my ability.  It was an honor to me to have lived with a very unique person like Yolanda which I probably did not deserve.  Through many tough times of my own doing, she still stuck by me and gave me support.  Most women would never have given it that much effort, but that was Yolanda.  She seldom gave up and fought to the end.  Even in her last hours, she fought but around her was a sense of peace as well.  Not many die in this world in such a manner and a model to us all.

            In that vein, I thought I would end this with some comments from her friend, Catherine Cavanaugh as I think it kind of summarizes all that I’ve written to this point:

“An important impact that Yolanda made on (me) was her friendship and association with Jack (her husband).  Each thought alike, a high percentage of the time about politics and world events.  They both avidly appreciated history.  Lots and lots of email, internet sites, and books were exchanged between the two of them.  I will always treasure a letter from Yolanda written shortly before Yolanda’s death.  I had just visited her; she had wanted to read what our children had written about Jack for a scrapbook type book that Karen (their daughter) put together----thinking of her own children, of course.  Her letter closed by saying, “Thanks for the tributes---it shows how your dear children continue to love their father and have admired his values.   A wonderful man!”       

                She finishes with what I think says it all: “And that is what we think about            Yolanda------‘A wonderful woman!’”