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native Poland led the fight in Eastern Europe to break from the stranglehold of communism.  Perhaps, as Stas felt, it was the rise of the Bishop from his hometown of Krakow, Karol Wojtyla, to become Pope John Paul II, that kindled the great popular uprising that spirited in political change.  Maybe it was simply the death of the faulty social economic system.  Whatever the root cause, labor strikes and the formation of the Solidarity union exerted tremendous pressure on the authoritarian, atheistic regime to force it to negotiate with the reformist leaders.
    Times were hard back then.  Strikes, martial law, international sanctions and triple digit inflation threatened to undermine the labor revolt, but Poland and her people persevered.  In 1990, decades of communist rule finally came to an end.
    The couple celebrated by getting married, and as the economy slowly improved, they worked to build a future together.  Dagmara finished her degree and found a job in the clinical laboratory at the local hospital.  Stas, who was an acknowledged genius with machinery, rose to be a foreman on a large farm.  He assumed responsibility for maintaining all of the antiquated equipment so essential during the periods of planting and harvest.
    Despite Poland’s transition to a free-market state, and the gradual improvement in their financial situation, the Malinowskis grew restless.  When one of Dagmara’s cousins suggested she apply for a temporary position at the Cleveland Clinic, she tentatively asked her husband if he would consider taking a leave of absence from his job.  She needn’t have been apprehensive.  Stas didn’t need any encouragement when presented with an opportunity to seek the American Dream.  In 1999, the young couple packed their belongings into two large trunks, and they and their toddler son, Jacek, then headed overseas toward a new life.
    Parma was the perfect place for them to settle.  Dagmara loved her job at the Clinic, working at the forefront of medical science.  Stas, a determined entrepeneur, started his own business as a specialty auto mechanic.  The business thrived, and it wasn’t long before most of the power brokers in the city became regular customers, unwilling to entrust their precious Bentleys, Mercedes and Beemers to any other shop.
    Young Jacek grew up in the garage.  While other boys in his neighborhood occupied their non-school hours playing sports and video games, ‘Jack’ helped in the family business, gradually learning the design subtleties of various high-performance internal combustion engines.  Like his father, he had a flair for all things mechanical, and his capable, easy-going manner endeared him to their customers.  Everyone who knew him assumed he would take over the workshop when his dad retired.
    However, in his teens, Jack’s interests expanded beyond those of school and helping his father.  As a boy he’d been fascinated by the mechanics of cars, but in recent years he’d gradually become bored hanging around the garage.  A few days after his sixteenth birthday he’d gone with a friend to a local gym to work out, and on that fateful day he’d become captivated by the demanding sport of rock-climbing.  He soon became a regular member of a climbing club, and Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons were now spent at the climbing wall, setting routes and developing the strength and balance he needed to become an elite climber.
    Integrating work, school and his new time-consuming hobby required real discipline on Jack’s part.  During the week his schedule was exhausting.  He labored hard to satisfy all of his obligations, but most evenings, after finishing his homework, he increasingly made time to pursue yet another newfound passion.  It was a subject quite apart from those he studied in school, and it fascinated him to the point where he began to think about maybe going to college, to learn more about it from experts in the field.  Jack had fallen in