The family was from Bydgoszcz but were vacationing in Lubaczow when the war started, and they got stuck there. They were deported from there in June 1940 to the Nowosybirska oblast in the USSR
This included her parents (Jozef Burek and Irena nee Kobylinska), her grandmother (Lucja Jablonska-Kobylainska), Aleksandra, her brother Zbigniew  and her sister Teresa.  All but her grandmother survived the war - she died of typhoid in Uzbekistan.
On release, her father and brother joined the Polish 2nd Corps, while Aleksandra and her mother and sister went to Valivade,  India where they lived for 5 years.

After the war, the family spent some time in the UK, before emigrating to Canada.