WARSAW — When a friend dies unexpectedly, we recall his face, his smile, the conversations forever unfinished.
Today I can see Bronislaw Geremek, who died in a car crash a few weeks ago, in jail in Bialoleka and hear his hoarse shouts from behind the bars of the prison on Rakowiecka Street. I see and hear "Bronek" in Castel Gandolfo, addressing Pope John Paul II.
I see him also during underground meetings of Solidarity and during the 1989 Round Table negotiations; I see him in our Parliament declaring the end of the Polish People's Republic, and on CNN announcing that Poland had joined NATO. And I remember dozens of private conversations, discussions and arguments conducted over almost 40 years.