Mieczyslaw was born on March 20, 1923 in Checiny in central Poland and raised in the towns of Sosnow and Buczacz in eastern Poland (now Ukraine). He grew up experiencing the hardships of the Depression but was preparing to begin higher education in engineering when he fled Poland at the age of 16 at the start of WWII in 1939.

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He made his way to Yugoslavia and then sailed to Lebanon on the steamship “Warszawa” provided by the Polish government in exile to transport refugees and combat volunteers. He eventually joined the Polish military forces forming in Palestine, eventually becoming a 2nd Lieutenant in the 3rd Carpathian Rifles, Polish 2nd Corps.

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He served his homeland with great distinction, including battles in Egypt and Tobruk in North Africa, and at Monte Cassino, Bologna and Ancona in Italy. He rarely talked about those terrible years during which he lost many friends, preferring only to say that “I survived because I was a luckier soldier than many others, not a better soldier."

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When the Soviet Union was allowed to retain control over Poland after WWII, he and thousands of other Poles scattered throughout Europe chose to immigrate to Canada. Many of them, including Mieczyslaw, settled in what is now Thunder Bay. Like all of them, he arrived with nothing but his determination to build a better life in a new land.

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As one of the conditions of his admission into Canada as an allied military veteran, Mieczyslaw was obliged to work for 2 years in various farming and logging jobs for room and board. He met his wife-to-be Gertie at a social event while he was working at a logging camp outside of Fort William. They married in St Casimir’s Church on June 18, 1949, and spent their honeymoon at Lake Louise, Alberta, driving there in the brand new black 1949 Ford sedan that Dad had bought with all his savings.

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Once his 2-year obligation was over, Mieczyslaw worked several different jobs before being hired by the McCabe Elevator (United Grain Growers), where he worked for over 35 years, starting at the bottom emptying grain cars and ending as shift foreman, before retiring in 1988.

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While working hard and raising his own family, Mieczyslaw also contributed to building a vibrant expatriate Polish community in Thunder Bay. He was a founding and lifetime member of the Royal Canadian Legion of Polish Veterans Branch #149, where he spent many hours after work and on weekends managing affairs as a long-time member of the executive, including President for a number of years. He also belonged to other Polish organizations, including the Polish Combatants.

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Mieczyslaw passed away in Thunder Bay on 5 January 2021, at 97 years of age.

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Copyright: Kalaska family