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| My Garden Princess |
Some of my earliest memories were as a little girl in the late 1950s in Alexandria, Virginia. I was the third child and the only girl. I was told my older brother Ed wanted a little sister because his best friend Larry had a sister. More so, my father wanted a little girl to spoil and he called me his Princess. My next older brother John didn't seem to care one way or another about having a little sister as he was my mother's favorite. My mother would have been content with the just two boys as she was age 36 and was pressured by my Dad and Ed to have a little girl. She was not in good health during the 10 month pregnancy and developed lifelong diabetes while she was pregnant with me. My memories of her were that she was mostly in poor health. I was about 11 pounds at birth and had to stay in the hospital for two weeks under an oxygen tent so the initial bonding between mother and newborn was delayed. All the more attention from my older brother and father when I did come home!
In 1957-8, I was 3-4 years old. My mother's maternal Uncle Michael Bugos died in my bed from gangrene. He had refused to have his leg amputated after a foot sore did not heal. He had many years of diabetes and tired of the struggle in his old age. His wife, Mary, was put into St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington, DC. There were no children from that marriage. Many of his possessions that were inherited by my mother. The relatives in Czechoslovakia were contacted and no one wanted to take care of the elderly Mary. My Great Uncle Mike was brought to our Alexandria, Virginia home to die. I remember my father carrying him piggy-back through the front door and into my bedroom. I had just got my own room that year and a “big girl bed” after being in a crib in my parent’s bedroom. I remember how it felt to be told I have to go back to sleeping in the crib again so my Great Uncle Mike could have my bed and room. I was not happy. My last memory of him was when my brothers and I dressed up for Halloween and went by the open bedroom door to show him our costumes before we went out trick or treating. Then I remember staying home with a babysitter for the first time as my parents went to his funeral. I got my room back soon after the funeral.
After his funeral and my brothers were in school, there were many trips into Washington, DC during the day with just me and my parents as I was too young for school. My mother was at the courthouse while my father took me to the park nearby. I have many great memories of time spent with my father feeding the pigeons and buying food from vendors in the park. I think we may also have gone to museums and other attractions but we did that a lot anyway since we lived just a few miles away in Alexandria. I did go with my father and mother into the courthouse once as my father had to speak before the judge. I only remember him being very nervous when the judge told him to remove his hat. I do know it was all about settling my Great Uncle Mike’s estate and what to do with his wife Mary.
Michael Bugos was the maternal uncle of my mother, Elizabeth Hudak Osius. He sponsored my mother to come to the United States in 1939 from Czechoslovakia when she was a single 21 year old woman. Her older brother, John Hudak, had also been sponsored by Michael Bugos previously. I do not know the year he came to Washington, DC from the old country I believe was known as Austria-Hungary before it became Czechoslovakia in 1918 (the year my mother was born). Michael Bugos earned his living as a house painter and likely worked in wealthy households in Washington, DC where he and his wife Mary lived. He also painted beautiful roses on postcards and I think he may have sold them on the side or just enjoyed art in general. Several of the furniture pieces we inherited had roses painted on them. I do not know when he came to the United States and became a citizen. My mother’s older brother John Hudak worked with him as a painter before he met and married Stacia and moved to Ohio to farm and raise my three cousins George, Tom, and John. Elizabeth Hudak worked nine years as a domestic in nine different embassies in Washington, DC before she met and married my father, Rudolph F. Osius. They moved to Alexandria, Virginia in 1948 and had three children.
Michael Bugos as a House Painter with Crew in Washington, DC (est 1940s)
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The Osius Family in 1954: John, Rudy, Ed, Betty (Elizabeth), Betty Ann (Elizabeth Ann) Alexandria, Virginia |
I think it is likely that my Great Uncle Mike acquired the bronze Faure De Brousse sculpture as payment for a house paint job from a wealthy family in Washington, DC. I think he helped my mother get work at foreign embassies so he likely would be in contact with such households. It is unlikely that he brought the 40 pound sculpture with him from Europe. It is also unlikely that he was of financial means to be purchasing expensive large artwork. It is likely that he valued this sculpture as an art piece representing his homeland before World War I changed everything. Maybe he bartered his services as a house painter in exchange for the bronze sculpture?
Both my older brothers and I took turns in each room of our mother’s home in Alexandria, Virginia dividing her possessions after her death in September 1993 (b.1918). I was the only sibling that expressed interest in the bronze sculpture. I wanted it as it held precious childhood memories for me. I had played with “The Princess” as a little girl putting makeup and jewelry on the bust. It was always kept under the basement staircase in the dark with one light bulb on a chain. She was my secret princess friend. My father would call me his “Princess” as I was the youngest and only girl. He often told me he always wanted a little girl. He told me stories about Empress Elisabeth of Austria Queen of Hungary. He said she had a son named Rudolf. My father birth name was Rudolf and he changed it to the Americanized spelling of Rudolph when he came to the United States at age 16 in 1933. My young imagination had made stories of being “royalty” especially since my parents never talked much about their early lives. My father was born and raised in Vienna, Austria and my mother near Bratislava, Czechoslovakia. Their early stories were received by me over many years with my mother expressing much sadness whenever she did reveal a few childhood details and my father’s story was told to me whenever I asked and with much grandeur. My childhood was the 1950-60s and any association with communism was not talked about especially when most of our relatives were in Eastern Europe. It is no wonder that my little girl imagination combined the stories of my unknown relatives with those of The Princess hidden away under the stairs in our basement. My parents made a new life in the United States in the 1930s, met and married in 1948, and as the family grew, didn’t even speak to or teach their children their native language. We were not close to any relatives except my mother’s brother John Hudak and her maternal uncle Michael Bugos who acquired the bronze sculpture. I never met my mother's parents. They died of tuberculosis in 1966. My mother only returned to her native homeland once in 1974 after I left home. My European Heritage took a backseat to my parent's Americanization.
I have a relationship with my maternal cousin's Stratka-Adams family in Slovakia that I have cherished since the mid-1990s. We have met in person several times in the United States which included her parents, my cousin Milan and wife Alsbeta once. Dara and Jeramy Adams have a beautiful family with five children. My father's estranged mother was a self-made woman of wealth living in Florida that I only met once for a week when she visited in1969. We had a letter-writing relationship from about 1970-1980. Louise Zabrinska Osius died in 1986. Since 2015, I have had a wonderful relationship with a paternal cousin in the Czech Republic, Pavel Zabransky. We have met in person twice so far. He and his adult daughter Lucy came to my home in Missouri 2022 and we all met for several days in Florence, Italy on Keith's and my 50th Wedding Anniversary in 2024. We email or call 2-3 times a month. I may not be "royalty" but I did the work to solve the mystery of who I am and where my family came from for the most part. These real relationships have made me rich beyond my imagination!
Our father Rudolph F. Osius had died in May of 1990 (b.1916) and everything was left for our mother, Elizabeth Hudak Osius in Alexandria, Virginia. My brother John Osius lived nearby and took all his stuff to his home. Whatever was left after Ed and I chose would go to charity. My brother Ed Osius and I rented a U-Haul truck and combined our stuff to drive to Missouri with my husband and son where we lived, unloaded, then drove to Iowa where Ed lived. My daughter and I followed in my car to Missouri and Ed's wife drove their car to Iowa. I thought the bronze sculpture was unloaded at my house in Missouri along with many other things. When I asked my brother later about my sculpture, he said his wife said she would clean it up and find out what it was worth. We agreed then that if it was of great value we would split it 3-ways. When she didn’t get the job done, we joked about hiding it in each other’s cars when we visit each other over the years until one of us spends the time and money to find its worth. We joked each time one of us made a major personal purchase saying that it must have been paid for by selling “The Princess” and not sharing the money! Over the years, we never really knew who actually had it as each household became cluttered with life’s growing processions.
I became the family Genealogist when I retired in 2011. I was able to document over five generations on either parent's side. I needed to do the work to put my parent's life into a timeline corresponding to historical facts. There were many gaps so in December 2019, I wrote a historical romantic novel about my father’s life covering the years of 1898-1948. It is mostly factual from the stories my father told me and what couldn't be verified likely could have been true and was identified as such. It is available through Amazon Kindle as an e-book titled: “Rudolf’s Rhapsody” by Babi Beti. A few years later, I discovered Jewish DNA information about my biological paternal grandfather that could add a whole new chapter! The only mystery remaining was about my bronze Princess sculpture!
My older brother, Ed Osius found the bronze sculpture in his garage attic in Blencoe, Iowa in 2023. It had been pushed into a dark place and not moved for about 30 years after our mother died in September 1993. He did not realize he had the sculpture. His large old metal chemistry set from his childhood was in front of the covered sculpture hiding it from view. Recently retired, he was cleaning out his garage attic and found the bronze sculpture wrapped in a white sack. He was surprised he had it all this time!
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| Keith & Ed load up The Princess for Missouri in 2023 |
Ed brought it down to the main floor of the garage so I could take it home to Hermitage, Missouri. I was staying with Ed on this trip to attend my mother-in-law’s funeral. I had visited my brother at least once a year over the past 30 years and he visited me in Missouri every Memorial Weekend. I had asked my brother about the bronze sculpture many times over the years and we both thought our other brother, John Osius in Virginia, must have it as his large home was always very cluttered and he didn’t really know for sure whether he had it or not.
I was thrilled to see it again after 30 years and very happy to take it home with me to Missouri where it always belonged! My 5 year old granddaughter saw it and her wide eyes brought back my childhood memories and I look forward to telling her many stories. I thought she and I could restore it together when she visited me and I would tell her stories of Empress Elisabeth of Austria Queen of Hungary and my parent’s history. She was very much into everything “princess” at that age! She asked if she could have it when I die and after my initial surprise at her bluntness, I smiled and said, “Of course you can have it!”
The signed “FAURE DE BROUSSE” (circa 1876-1908) bronze sculpture bust with the name “RAFFAELLA” on the pedestal banner and “CK V” marked on the underside is located in Hermitage, Missouri in the possession of Elizabeth Osius Pearson. It was in its original unrestored condition and not cleaned as of March 20, 2023. There were no dents, scratches, or broken parts. There are some areas where a gold-like gilding has flaked off especially at the pedestal; likely from many years stored in a garage with temperature changes. The white bag that covered it all these years in the garage was loaded with this gold-like gilding dust and chips. I was told that gilding was a popular trend at that time as gilding gives an object a gold appearance at a fraction of the cost of creating a solid gold object as a solid gold piece would often be too soft or too heavy for practical use. This sculpture weighs 40 pounds, as is. A guilt surface also does not tarnish. I used a special wax to protect it before I put it outside.
The first two winters, I had lightly cleaned the sculpture and attempted some restoration on the face area only. I had started to clean her face as it was showing some brown areas when I was a child rubbing her cheek with a shoe-shining soft cloth. I soon realized that I was removing the gilding and the brown was the base coat under it. I am not skilled to remove all the gilding and base coat. I did take it down to the original bronze surface on the face area only which is already developing a rich patina color! I just finished what I started as a little girl cleaning my friend's dirty face. My intent was to find the insurance value and put the sculpture in my home garden to enjoy my old childhood memories. The Princess will not be kept in the dark anymore as 65 years was too long!
May 13, 2025 I applied and got free tickets for two to attend The Antiques Road Show at Grant's Farm in St. Louis, Missouri. I went through the application process and was accepted to attend this event that is regularly broadcasted on PBS traveling around the country to different locations. It's all about a free verbal appraisal from experts. It is about insurance value. I never had any intention of selling it at any price!
Keith and I drove the three hours to St. Louis and stayed overnight nearby as our appointment was for 8 AM the next day. The location was the former farm of Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th President of the United States. It is currently the home of the famous Budweiser Clydesdales with the Anheuser Busch breweries nearby and open for public viewing with a fee. It was a beautiful spring day and we enjoyed seeing all the interesting people and items they brought to be appraised. This show will be broadcast on PBS sometime in 2026. Everything was filmed with cameras and crew everywhere and I had to sign a release. There were specific areas where more intense interviews were done and security was everywhere. I do not think I will be on TV but it is possible. The online research I had done documented values between $500 - $15K for similar bronze sculptures by the same artist during the same years with the higher end for one jewelry-inlay sculpture in good condition with no gilding. It is the undesirable gilding that has lowered the value says the appraiser. The Antique Roadshow verbal appraisal opinion indicated the lower end of value so I will not have to increase my current home insurance to display this sculpture outside in my garden. I am not interested in any additional professional restoration as the cost could likely exceed the value. I am relieved!
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| Check the Antique Roadshow PBS schedule for your local TV station in 2026. Maybe you will see us there! |
I had prepared a special place in my garden as the final resting place for The Princess to shine. I can only hope that my granddaughter, Kayleen Mills, will come to appreciate her own heritage through my novel, stories, and history of my precious bronze sculpture that she contributed her time (and old pajamas) to clean and restore. It will be hers after I'm done with it. She will be the one to determine it's final value.
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