Born in the village of Padustėlis in 1920, Paulius Širvys (actually named Povilas according to the parish register) was the author of the poetic masterpieces, ‘Aš - beržas’ (I am a birch tree), ‘Ir nusnesšė saulę miškai’ (And the sun was carried away by the forests), and ‘Ateisiu tylią naktį’ (I will come on a silent night). His parents were intelligent people. They read newspapers and books, although they were not rich. As newlyweds, and already expecting their future poet son and believing that farming would have better results in a new location, they exchanged farms with a relative from Padustėlis, J Urbonas, the uncle of P Širvis. Unfortunately farming from the Padustėlis homestead was not very successful. The homestead had been built in that local late nineteenth and early twentieth century style which was common in villages which contained churches. After more than a year of effort, the Širviai family returned to the farm in Degučiai (in the Rokiškis district). The Paulius Širvis homestead is characterised by a large, elongated rectangular design with a gable roof. The building’s interior is divided into three parts, with the porch dominating the centre. This serves to separate the living areas, which are roughly equal in volume and which are arranged in a pattern which is typical of the Aukštaitija region, with a kitchen, common room, and guest rooms, a pantry, and a smaller storage room. Four years after Širvis’ death, in 1983, his childhood house in Padustėlis was bestowed with a memorial plaque and, in 1995, on the occasion of seventy-fifth anniversary of the birth of the poet, a sculptural roofed pole was unveiled in the town of Dusetos in his memory by the folk-artist, I Užkurnis. In 1997, Zarasai’s second secondary school was rechristened with the poet’s name.