Kún László

as told by Karen Kún

I will tell you a little about my father (obviously 50 years is a lot to fill in !) so you have a sense of his life.  After leaving Hungary in 56, he was in Italy for 6 months and then came to Canada as a refugee, along with many other Hungarians and became a full Canadian a few years later.  He settled in Montreal, learned English (even though he has never lost his strong Hungarian accent) and had a successful and fun life in the 1960s as an engineer working for Air Canada and Boeing.  I think he always looks at the days in Montreal as the highlight of his life as it was very carefree and Montreal was a fabulous city to live in in the 1960s.  He met my Mum (she is English and had just immigrated to Montreal) the first night she was in town and then married in 1968 in London and honeymoon-ed in Hungary.  My parents have always lived in the suburbs of Toronto since leaving Montreal in 1972 (I was born in 1973) and he always worked as an engineer for AECL and Dofasco.  My father's career took him in the late 1970s and early 80s to Chile and Argentina where he developed his wonderful side-career as a photographer while working on a nuclear reactor project.  He has many great stories of this part of his life.  He was diagnosed with Parkinson's 15 years ago and it has gotten worse every year.  He needs a lot of care and lives in a nursing home very close to us.  My Mum and I see him all the time and he comes home on weekends.

He might very well want to come to Budapest.  I don't know if it is appropriate or not, yet I might be in Budapest during your reunion. I am making a film on my Dad's life and Hungarian history, and I might be able to come on his behalf. I will not be offended if you don't want me to come, it seemed like a nice option though.  My family in Hungary would love to see Laci as we all are very close (no one left Hungary but him) and so you never know, maybe I can convince my Dad to come.