Czeslawa (nee Piasecka) Piotrowska was born 16 May 1930, in Kalusz, Poland. She was the oldest of three daughters born to Anna (nee Jagielnicka) and Kazimieriz Piasecki. Her happiest memories were of her childhood in Poland, before the Second World War. In the early morning hours of 10 February 1940, the Soviet Army came knocking on the door of her family home, and shipped her family, via cattle train car, to Siberia. On that night, everything changed, and Czeslawa, who was only 9 years old on that cold winter morning, had to grow up very quickly.

 

Released by the ‘amnesty’ Czeslawa, her sisters, and mother, made their way to the southern USSR and were evacuated to Persia with the Polish Army. From Persia, they were sent to a refugee camp in Tanganika, where they spent the remainder of the War. At this African refugee camp, she received first communion, and some formal education.

 

Her father, Kazmieriz, was a Sgt. in the Polish 2nd Corps, and served at the battle of Monte Casino in Italy. The family was re-united with their father after the war at the de-mobilization camp at Ulton Park in Wales. Her mother died in a British military hospital in Wales on 21 August 1948, from complications after surgery, and her father died in England in 1974. Her younger sister Ala, who lived in Derby, England, died in 1976, at the age of 45, and her youngest sister, Lola, who lived in Rockford, Illinois, died in 1984, at the age of 49.

 

Czeslawa’s husband, Michal Vincent Piotrowski, was also a Polish 2nd Corp veteran. Michal was decorated twice for bravery and served gallantly at the battle of Monte Casino in Italy. Czeslawa and Michal were married in Derby, England on 25 December 1954, after a brief courtship. Michal was already living in Port Arthur by that time, so she came back to Canada with him. Canada provided Michal with a temporary work permit, and the ability to take citizenship after his work permit expired. Czeslawa’s most amusing story was getting on the train in Halifax, enroute to Port Arthur. After a couple of days on the train, passing by an endless vista of snow-covered trees and rocks, she began to wonder why her new husband was taking her back to Siberia.

 

 Nevertheless, she began a new life, and soon Richard Michael was born in 1958, and then Jerzy Edward was born in 1959. Her youngest sister Lola, and her husband, Michal, had four children: Alice Christine arrived in 1959, Helen Sophie arrived in 1965, Walter Carl came in 1969, and Edward Mathew arrived in 1971.

 

Michal died on 25 November 1982, from a heart attack. After retiring from her work as a seamstress, Cesia became very active in the Ladies Auxiliary of St. Mary's Queen of Poland Church. She died on 12 October 2004 at the age of 74, while in the care of the cardiac care staff at Thunder Bay Regional Hospital.  She was buried beside her husband in St. Andrews Cemetery.

 

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Published by The Thunder Bay Chronicle Journal on Oct. 13, 2004.

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