Teresa CHELCHOWSKA
Teresa Chelchowska (nee Kowal) was born to Jozef and Anna (nee Stempak) on 20 May 1931 in Bobiatny, Rzeszow district, Poland. Her siblings were: Stanislaw, Feliks, Zofia, Marysia, and twins Katarzyna & Franciszek.
In her 9th year, Russians arrived at their house on 10 February 1940 and escorted them on sleds to the trains that took them to camps in Archangelsk in Siberia - a village by a river in northern Russia. The boxcars were very cold, and many children and elderly died on the trip. She remembers that they did not freeze because of the duvets her mother brought, yet the twins Katarzyna & Franciszek died during this journey.
Zofia died in a Russian hospital, and the family all suffered with typhus. They were kept at the forced labour camp for nearly 2 years until they were freed because of the ‘amnesty’. Her father and oldest brother Stanislaw joined the Polish army and Teresa with her surviving siblings (Marysia & Feliks) were sent to the Masindi Polish Camp in Uganda, Africa. Her mother remained in Russia until 1946.
Teresa finished Grade 11 and then studied to become a seamstress during her stay at the Polish camps in Africa from 1941 – 1945, where she was in an orphanage with about 10,000 Polish children. She has fond memories of sleeping in the jungle under trees and in tents, while African men guarded them with spears to ward off the animals. After being transferred to a different camp in Kenya, she joined the Polish girl guides.
When the war ended, they started closing the orphanages and camps. Teresa and her siblings were sent by ship to Plymouth, England where they were reunited with their brother Stanislaw and their mother. She never learned what happened to her father.
Stanislaw introduced Boleslaw to his sister during an Easter family celebration, and they ended up getting married on 28 October 1950 in Leicester, in a small Polish church built by the local community. Teresa worked as a seamstress in Leicester until the birth of her first child Dorota, and then one year later Boleslaw applied for a job in Canada. With a baby and one suitcase in hand, they left for Canada, arriving by train in London in June of 1953.
In Canada, Teresa and Boleslaw raised their five children: Dorothy, Richard, Derek, Joe, and Ted. Teresa studied English in London and took additional seamstress classes. She worked as a Nurses’ Aid in Senior Homes.
Teresa was a member of the Women’s Auxiliary of the Polish Combatants Association , Branch #2 of London since 1955, where she helped in the kitchen and assumed several executive positions.
Teresa passed away in London, Ontario on 5 September 2021, in her 91st year. She was buried in St. Peter's Cemetery, London.
Copyright: Chelchowski family