STEFAN (STEVE) MICHALAK

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STEFAN (STEVE) MICHALAK Peacefully at Victoria General Hospital on Thursday, October 28, 1999 at the age of 83. Stefan was born in Poland on August 7, 1916. When he came of age, he enlisted in the Polish Army and began the training that would prepare him to attain a junior officers rank at the outbreak of the Second World War. With the defeat of the Polish Army, Stefan joined his comrades in the Polish Home Army and continued the struggle as a partisan, participating in clandestine operations, which earned him the respect of his peers. It was during this turbulent time that he met the woman who would become his wife. They were married in 1946 only to be separated again for a ten-year period after his escape from Communist-held Poland in 1948. Stefan immigrated to Canada via the Allied occupation forces in Germany. He settled in Saskatchewan and, while working on a family farm as a hired hand, began a ten-year struggle to bring his wife, daughter and son to Canada from Poland. In 1957, he was reunited with his wife and family, and in 1958, a second son was born into the family. Subsequently he and his family moved to Winnipeg where he worked as an industrial mechanic and, before his retirement, as a millwright on hydro-electric projects in Manitobas north. Having severed his ties with his homeland, Stefan embraced his new country and was, until the last, a proud Canadian citizen. His passion for this vast, new country developed into a love of nature, open spaces, animals and birds and a celebration of what Canadas unending wilderness had to offer. Geology became one of his hobbies and the reason for many trips to the wilderness to see the world in a grain of sand. He was an accomplished painter, his canvasses often reflecting his love of nature. Left to mourn his passing is his wife, Maria; daughter Eva; sons, Mark and Stan; his granddaughters, Christy and Marnie; daughters-in-law, Leslie and Sybil; and family members in his native Poland. The family would like to thank the nursing staff of the Victoria General Hospital for their kindness and compassion and the Department of Veterans Affairs for their generous assistance. Cremation has taken place. A memorial reception will be held on Sunday, October 31 at Thomson Funeral Chapels, 669 Broadway from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. In lieu of flowers, donations in Stefans memory may be made to the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Manitoba, 301-352 Donald St., Winnipeg, MB R3B 2H8. THOMSON FUNERAL CHAPELS 783-7211

As published in Winnipeg Free Press on Oct 30, 1999