"When I invited him to come see it in Honolulu, he told me, in Polish, 'I wish Honolulu was not so far away from home,' " she said. "He appreciated what I was doing,"

Borkowski, who is of Polish descent, remembered that the pope "was young, handsome, and smiled beautifully" when they met. She recalled: "It was after his 65th birthday, and he was so full of life. He blessed me — 'Wish you all the success,' he said — and my picture was taken with him by The Associated Press."

Borkowski, who also produced the show in the Pacific Northwest, delivered some positive Washington reviews to the pope and was eager to get his reaction. She said "The Jeweler's Shop," about three couples who explore their lives, hopes and fears, is seldom produced, possibly because few know that the pope also was a playwright, "but maybe after papa's death, there will be more interest."

Hundreds cheered the day Borkowski met the pope, and he was dressed in his white robe.

"I was in seat No. 3, not too far from him," she recalled.

She had arranged the meeting because of her interest in staging foreign plays for American audiences, through a production company she was operating in Vancouver, Wash. She said the play filled the bill since it offered "food for the soul, it is by the pope and it preserves our Polish heritage."

She said the pope had written another play, "Brother of Our God," but it requires a big stage with 40 people in the cast — "too big for me," said Borkowski.

She made one other trip to the Vatican in 1989, but Pope John Paul II was traveling at the time, so she could not arrange a meeting.

Borkowski has retired from acting and producing plays but is involved in "Polska Polacy Hawaii," a Polish program airing at 9 p.m. Mondays on 'Olelo 53.