MARY (MARIA) ZEGLINSKI

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MARY (MARIA) ZEGLINSKI Mary (Maria) Zeglinski aged 94 passed away at St. Joseph's Residence on January 31, 2009. She was a remarkable hard working person. Her life's commitment was to make it possible for her small family to survive and to achieve a better life. She had a very hard and trying life. She was born March 25, 1914 in a war torn Poland. Russia confiscated her farm in Poland in February, 1940. The family (including parents and two brothers) was transported to prison (Gulag) in Siberia. Through her ingenuity and very hard work, she made it possible for her family to survive starvation by walking for miles in waist high snow to neighbouring villages and trade things she had brought from Poland for food. In 1942, Russia was being invaded by Germans. In order to form Polish 2nd Corps. of some 100,000 the family was allowed to leave Siberian Russia. Eugene, her husband, joined the army and with him the rest of the family excluding her father (who died in Russia) migrated via Uzbekistan, Persia, Pakistan, to Tanzania, East Africa. Mary Zeglinski and her two children spent some six years in East Africa refugee camps while her husband Eugene was fighting the Germans on various fronts including Monte Casino battle. In refugee camps, Mary had to work in the fields planting potatoes in 100 + temperatures and in the communal kitchen where temperatures were well over 120 degrees. Finally in 1948, she joined her husband Eugene, who was demobilized from the army, to a refugee camp in London, England. In 1949, she immigrated with the whole family to Winnipeg. She worked on piecework basis as a seamstress. Whenever, she met the quota, it was raised. Her main goal was to educate her children. These were realized when her son Chester graduated in mechanical engineering and her daughter Danusia as a medical doctor. Besides her children she also leaves to grieve, her grandchildren, Dr. Cathy, Dr. Joy Zeglinski, Akanji, Simi Okuboye and Dr. Deji Okuboye, and six great-grandchildren. Also her brother, Eugene Baron, sisters-in-law Barbara Baron and Wanda Baron, nephews Ches and Chris Baron, Danusia's husband Tony Johannesmeyer and Cecilia Delacruz. Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Friday, February 6 at 10:00 a.m. with Rosary at 9:30 a.m. at St. John Cantius Roman Catholic Church, 855 Burrows Ave. with Rev. Fr. Ceas Chmiel officiating. Interment to follow at Holy Ghost Cemetery. The family wishes to thank the nursing staff of St. Joseph's Residence. 586-8044

As published in Winnipeg Free Press on Feb 04, 2009