IT was an anxious wait for Colleen's relatives at Changi Airport in the early hours of Dec 16, 2014.
As the crowd at luggage collection belt 46 got smaller, her aunt Lee Say Moi, 66, started to look at a nearby gate from which passengers could also exit. Five minutes later, she and her brother Lee Tak Nyen, 70, walked to that gate, hoping to make sure they did not miss Ms Turzynski, 26.
By then, very few people were left at the luggage collection belt. "Maybe she's stuck at the customs and filling up some information," said Say Moi of her niece. She also browsed through photos of Colleen in her phone, trying to recall what she looks like.
At about 1.20am - 20 minutes after passengers had started collecting their luggage - Colleen finally appeared. She walked quickly towards the luggage collection belt and out into the arrival hall.
She hugged her aunt, then her uncle, then her aunt again. Both women had tears in their eyes.
It was the first time they had met in person, since Colleen's parents and grandfather were murdered in 1990, when she was just 17 months old.Colleen, who is deaf, later told The Straits Times through writing: "I was very excited about my reunion with my family. I couldn't believe I have a family here. I am very happy to find them but I feel bad (for coming) here without my parents."
She lost her mother as well as her Polish father and grandfather in a tragic murder in the United States 24 years ago. Having lived in Poland since her parents' death, she had lost all contact with her mother's family.
She grew up in Poland but moved in 2014 to Washington, where she is studying.
"I want to be able to visit you so I can get to know you better," she had told her Singapore relatives when they saw each other for the first time in 24 (1990 - 2014) years, over a Skype call in April.
Eight months later, Colleen made use of her winter break to make her long-awaited journey here to get to know her mother's family.
Her first stop here was Mount Vernon Columbarium, where her mother's ashes are stored. After a few hours' rest at her uncle's home, where she stayed during her visit, she went to pay her respects to her mother.
She placed a few roses near her mother's columbarium niche and a candle on the floor. With her aunt Say Moi beside her, she continued looking at the black-and-white photo of her mother Kui Yin.
Soon, her face turned red and the tears flowed. She held a piece of tissue paper in one hand and her aunt's arm with the other.
"It's been a long time searching for my mum. I didn't know where she was until now, so I wanted to visit my mum's final resting place," she said.
With the top task on her to-do list done, she began to see more of her mother's country of birth.
On her second day here, she celebrated Christmas early with the local Polish community at the Polish ambassador's residence near Caldecott Hill.
During her month-long stay, her mother's family and friends, as well as friends she knew through a Singaporean university mate, took her to various tourist spots, including Sentosa, Orchard Road and Chinatown.
Tourist spots Colleen Turzynski visited included the Singapore Zoo, the Flyer and the Merlion Park.
Tourist spots Colleen Turzynski visited included the Singapore Zoo, the Flyer and the Merlion Park.
Tourist spots Colleen Turzynski visited included the Singapore Zoo, the Flyer and the Merlion Park.
Tourist spots Colleen Turzynski visited included the Singapore Zoo, the Flyer and the Merlion Park.
Tourist spots Colleen Turzynski visited included the Singapore Zoo, the Flyer and the Merlion Park.
Tourist spots Colleen Turzynski visited included the Singapore Zoo, the Flyer and the Merlion Park.
She visited the Merlion Park - she found the national icon "cool" - and counted down to 2015 with her cousins at Marina Bay as fireworks went off.
Local food, though, took some getting used to. Her discomfort spiked during an encounter with the durian. "The smell was horrible!" she signed, pinching her nose with eyebrows furrowed.
But she does like carrot cake. "If I had grown up in Singapore, I'd probably like more local food."
The heat has also been a test. But that has not stopped her from falling in love with Singapore.
"This is an international place, with a lot of shops... It's also a small place where everything is near to one another, unlike in the US," she said.
The biggest highlights of her trip, however, were finding out more about her mother and visiting her mother's resting place.
Colleen went there a second time, on Jan 2, 2015, with her mother's best friend Chan Yoke Mei. She also paid respects to her maternal grandparents at a Chinese cemetery in Lim Chu Kang.
And she got to see sepia photos in family albums, meet her mother's friends, and, she found herself being inspired by a parent she hardly knew.
"My mother had little education and yet she was so outgoing. She was very brave to have travelled around the world," she said.
And she got to see sepia photos in family albums, meet her mother's friends, and, she found herself being inspired by a parent she hardly knew.
Colleen meets two of her late mother's friends in the local deaf community, at the Singapore Association for the Deaf.
Colleen meets two of her late mother's friends in the local deaf community, at the Singapore Association for the Deaf.
But Colleen found language a problem, especially in communicating with older relatives, many of whom speak Mandarin or Hakka.
"At gatherings, if they are not writing to me, I feel left out a bit because I don't understand what's going on. But my cousins would then write for me, and I'm happy," she said.
Despite the challenges, she cherishes her family. "I don't want to lose them. It's because of my mother that I have this wonderful family," she said.
It is hard, she said, to have relatives all over the world.Her father's relatives live in Poland; her foster parents and the burial places of her father and grandfather are in the US.
Her Singapore relatives hope she will eventually live here, finding a job - and love.
"My relatives asked me if I have a boyfriend. I said 'no'. They would like me to find a Chinese boyfriend here," she said, laughing.
"If I didn't have to go back to the US so soon, I'd have wanted to stay here longer," added Colleen, who graduates from her university in 2016.
She departed for the US on Jan 11, 2015, with two suitcases, one more than what she arrived with, thanks to family albums and gifts from relatives.
"I have to focus on my studies, so I don't know when I'll return. But I would like to come back regularly. This is like my third home."
