Zofia Teresa Lezynska (Basia) was born on October 8, 1939, in Pulawy, Voivodship Lublin in Poland to Katarzyna Podlaska (Wroblewska) and Bronislaw Podlaski. She was second youngest child with Stanislaw her eldest brother, Jozef and sister Czeslawa - the youngest of the four children.
My mother often recalled her memories as a small girl born during WWII, the horrors of the war. She told us how grandpa - a shoemaker by day and security guard by night at the Czartoryski Palace was bringing food to a Jewish family hiding in the woods, or when she was afraid that two years old Czesia will cry when they were running away from bombs and hiding in trenches from Nazi soldiers. Zofia and her family lived near the military base and sometimes German soldiers were leaving out food (soup, bread) on the windowsills for the locals or gave candy to a group of children playing outside. Four year old Zosia remembered how she asked: 'Herr bitte bonbon' and being a cute little girl was given a handful of candy that she shared with siblings and friends.
After the war her family moved west to the regained lands that initially belonged to Poland back in the days. Times after the war were very hard. Zosia and many others were often cold and hungry. My grandpa had to work a couple jobs to provide for the family and meet the ends because whoever decided to settle and was given free land in the countryside was obligated to give up a part of the harvest to the officials to feed people in the growing cities. Grandpa worked in the field by day and by night he shovelled coal.
Zosia and her younger sister Czesia walked a couple kilometres to bakery to buy fresh bread almost every day because they could not buy more than one-two loafs of bread per day for a family of 6 when bread and soup made of whatever was there to find, cabbage, potatoes and sometimes kielbasa were staple foods people ate those days.
My mom was a clever girl who loved to read and had a great memory. There wasn't a book in the local library that she didn't read. Her favorite was 'The Forsyth Family Saga', 'Gone with the Wind' and other classics. Young Zosia also had a talent for reciting poems and once won a first place in a competition in her voivodship.
At the age of 17, Zofia left Cybinka and went to Zielona Gora to study nursing. A year later she moved to Wroclaw where she met my father - Bohdan Lezynski - an electrician by trade. A couple years later they married and had two daughters: Anna and my sister Ewa.
Wroclaw always remained in my mother’s and father's memory as a great city, full of social life, charming coffee shops, dansingi, and visits to friends, Sunday visits to the zoo, ice cream shops, Hortex, juicers places, theatres, ballet and opera houses. Both of my parents worked but when my younger sister refused going to daycare my mother quit her hospital job and took care of us. Those were great times. I remembered those days, we went shopping to Pevex, Pedet, and my favourite - farmers’ markets, restaurants and parks.
In early seventies, we moved to Gwizdanow, and later to Lubin to take care of my grandparents on my father's side.
Those were different times. My parents experimented with farming, raising chickens, ducks, and one pig. One day that pig ran away, and the whole family chased it around the village. We found it three hours later at one of the farmer’s barn across the rail tracks.
My sister and I will always remember Gwizdanow as a fun village. We all felt very free there. There was so much space. We were going mushroom picking, going on long walks, picking spring flowers in the meadow and chasing Bary - our clever lovely dog, or playing hide and seek with other kids. After a couple years in Gwizdanow my parents got tired of "farming" and moved to a nearby town- Lubin. Oher family members moved to our cute house with an oak tree forest, fruit treed orchard, garden, meadows. They helped to care for the grandparents.
In 1974, my father visited his two siters in Canada and fell in love with Toronto and its lifestyle. Despite hard work, dad worked in the Future Bakery for $2.90 per hour, 10 or more hours a day. He missed his family a lot and only lasted without us for three months. When my father came back in 1975 my parents couldn’t stop talking about immigrating to Canada.
During communism it was almost impossible to leave on vacation together as a family because the government wasn't issuing passports to whole families only to either one of the parents.
In 1980-81 my parents joined the Solidarity movement, and my mother became the vice president of ZOZ (Medical Care Goup) in Lubin for the - Solidarity Free Union. These were dangerous times because the ruling communist party tried to suppress the movement. Solidarity leaders often faced oppression from the hands of communist rulers, Militia and SB (Special Forces). Once my mother received an anonymous phone call warning her not to go to a meeting in Wroclaw because someone was plotting to get rid of her. My mother got scared for her family and decided to leave Poland as soon as possible.
In August of 1981, my parents applied for passports but the government denied my father again. Zofia couldn’t give up. She went to Legnica, and met with the Executive Director in the passport office. She convinced the officer and was able to get a passport for my father. Obviously, she didn't tell him that we were planning to immigrate to Canada, only that we were going to Italy to visit pope John Paul the Second - the Polish Pope who was loved by everyone, communist or non-communist those days.
Three days later, we arrived in Vienna - refugee camp and registered as refugees. Our cousin's husband - Kazik (fluent in German) came with us. Five of us packed our whole life into 4 luggage pieces. We could only take necessities. But, my mother somehow brought feather duvets, later explaining to the customs officers that those are our sleeping bags. I guess as a child born during the war, Zofia remembered that she was often cold and hungry and didn't want her family experience that.
We spent nine months in Austria waiting for Canada to accept us as immigrants. Austria was special time for my family. I was 16, my sister was 14 and we went to local schools where we learned German. People in Austria remembered how they were also oppressed by the Russian Communist army who controlled that part of Austria. Austrians were warm, very hospitable and friendly to immigrants. Austria and Spitz an der Donahue was a beautiful little town surrounded by Alps with nice churches and culture. That year spring came early to that lovely town nestled in the valley of the Alps and the Danube River. In February, violets already bloomed, and grass was getting green.
We arrived at the Toronto airport on April 19th during a snowstorm. Welcome to Canada! We all know the weather here can be very surprising. After arriving in Canada, my parents were looking forward to a new chapter in their lives. They were happy and excited. Zofia was always a very positive person and never scared. She saw the world through pink lenses or as others say, seeing glass of water as half full and not half empty. From the airport we travelled to Waterloo and were guests of Dniprenko family. They welcomed us with open arms. Mr. and Mrs Dniprenko were a friendly and warm hearted Ukrainian family. We we were sponsored by a Ukrainian Parish in Kitchener and Dniprenkos offered to provide their pleas a temporary space for us until an apartment in Kitchener became available. Unfortunately, (or fortunately) we didn't stay too long in the Kitchener-Waterloo area. My sister refused attending St. Mary Girls Only Catholic school, and my father missed his relatives and wanted to live in Toronto. Two weeks later we ended up at my aunt's Nahorny basement and spent there a few weeks. It was great to meet my aunt Ola, uncle Ivan and cousins Oksana and Lesia. The other family members were aunt Dorka, who made delicious pierogies uncle Wladek, cousins Irka and Strefcia. We began loving to live in Toronto. After a few weeks at my aunt’s pl, we moved to Dundas S. West and rented a flat near Roncesvales on Dundas. That was the time I got my first job at the German deli shop - Solidarity (learning German in Poland and in Austria came very handy).
Despite very little money, and a government loan to repay for air tickets to Canada, my parents borrowed money from family members for a down payment, and in September of 1982 they bought their first a semidetached Victorian house on Garden Avenue in Toronto. Relatives and friends thought my mother was crazy. Even dad was scared. But not my mother. Zofia was brave. Never afraid of new challenges. She also convinced my father to leave Poland when he was 46 years old to come to Canada with the whole family. Zofia pulled it! She and my dad purchased the property for $53,000 with an existing mortgage at 9.9% when mortgage rates those days were around 19.5 %!
With two teenage daughters, my parents rented out half of the house. It was a three story house and we all managed. 5 years later my parents sold the house and made a lot of money.
Zofia got her first job as a babysitter. She took care of a lovely little girl Nicole. She was paid $125 per week (about $25 more than an average pay) because she was able to convince Nicole's parents (very nice people) that she is a registered nurse and will take an excellent care of Nicole, which she did by the way.
From then on...you could say we lived happily and everafter.....Zofia later found a job as a nurse's aide, and my father as a maintenance worker at Copernicus Lodge - Retirement Home until his retirement.
In the 1990's my parents moved from their bungalow in Etobicoke to another house in Mississauga. My parents sponsored many people to Canada, among them Zofia’s nephew Tadeusz, nieces: Halina and Urszula as well as Ewa's longtime friend Beata. Other niece Teresa was sponsored by another family member. I will always remember Christmas Eve celebrations at my parents place. My parents used to invite all the lonely/single people they knew to the table. We celebrated Christmas Eve together and enjoyed our company.
Zofia (Basia) has 6 grandchildren: Adam, Annette, Laura, Kasia, Michal and Daniel who was stillborn, and one step-granddaughter Sabina. My dad passed away almost 5 years before my mom in September 2017. After his death my mother wasn't the same anymore. She missed my her husband and her health began declining. On top of her Diabetes type II, she struggled with dementia. About a year ago, Zofia became very sick. Zofia Teresa passed peacefully in the company of her children and grandchildren in Brampton.
She will be missed dearly by us, my sister Ewa, her husband Bogdan, my partner Mirek, my ex-husband Mirek, her grandchildren, nieces (Halina, Teresa and Urszula) their families, cousins and many more. Zofia was a beautiful and life loving person. Always an optimist who knew how to have a great time (my parents traveled on vacation frequently).
I love you mom forever. You’re gone but not forgotten. Rest in Peace!
