Maria Barbara Lasunowicz - Wrobel

"Unforgettable ups and downs of my life" Maria Lasunowicz - Wrobel was born May 1, 1922 in Niwiska, in the county of Podkarpacie, Poland. She spent her youth with her parents and siblings: sister and two brothers, living in Hallerczyn colony 8 miles from Brody near Lviv. Maria's father served in the Austrian army, under General J. Haller's command. After 4 years of study, she graduated from Eliza Orzeszkowa's school. In 1939 she passed the entry exam to Juliusz Slowacki's High School in Krzemieniec. The Second World War interrupted her education. In February 1940 along with her family, she was deported by Russians from occupied Poland to Siberia. She was sent to Niznaja Stryga in Arkhangelsk. Siberia is the rural territory covered with snow and desolate land, below freezing. Their primative barracks were built with moss sealed logs filled with bed bugs and lice that bit everyone severely. Siberia is also the place where Maria lost her father who was 46 years old. He was buried in Siberian frozen soil on one of the hills by the biggest tree. The Siberian work consisted of cutting and transporting trees to a lumber yard. Maria's job as a young girl was washing huge pots where a Russian cook prepared a barley , "Ucha" soup (made from fish heads) or oatmeal. She also carried full buckets of water from a nearby river to fill soup pots. Every worker received as a labor compensation 7oz of low quality bread with the soup or oatmeal. Anybody who was sick or did not work received nothing to eat. The Russian people said: " If you don't work, you don't eat." Everybody was struggling for a piece of bread, including Mari's mother and her 4 children. They were hungry and looked like skeletons. The Second World War was rolling on. Eventually the Germans occupied Kiev and Moscow, so the Soviet Union was in a panic. In the spring the Allies made an agreement with Russia and based on this pact, the "workers" in Siberia were free to go. They got an order to travel south to Uzbekistan. In Tashkent, a Polish Army was formed under English command. Uzbekistan was also the place where Maria lost her mother who was only 46 years old to typhus. She was buried in a multiple grave with 30 other dead people. In Nukus, by the Emudaria river, she lost her youngest brother (7 years old) to dysentery. Next, after many obstacles, Maria joined another Polish group under the Allies care and got transported over the Caspian Sea to Pachlewi, Tehran, Iran. In Tehran, Maria met her future husband, Lieutenant Ryszard Lasunowicz, who had also been freed from the Siberian gulags. Next she traveled to Iraq, Iran, and then Palestine as a soldier with the army. In Nazareth, Maria resumed her education and graduated with a high school diploma. In 1947, in Bologna, Italy she married Lieutenant Ryszard Lasunowicz. After the wedding, her husband left with his army to go to England. Maria stayed in Italy and began to wotk in Military Hospital #9 as a manager of nurses. When the war ended, Maria and her husband were awarded Polish Military Orders: Viltuti Militari, Polish Army Medal, Krzyz Zeslancow Sybiru, Order Kombatanow i Osob Represjonowanych, British Order - Defense Medal, and Italian Order - 1939 / 1945 Star. In 1949, Maria left for England and reunited with her husband who was serving there with his army, but they did not stay there long. In December 1951, they emigrated to Cleveland, Ohio, where a relative sponsored them. Twelve years later, in 1963, they relocated to Fullerton, California. Ryszard Lasunowicz became a business owner of the Accent Manufacture Shop. Maria went back to school at Fullerton College, then graduated from a nursing school. She continued her professional career as a registered nurse at St. Jude Hospital for 20 years. In 1977, she lost her husband to a heart attack. In 1981 she remarried to Ryszard Wrobel, an attorney form Montreal. The newlyweds traveled a lot, enjoying their time together. Nineteen years later, Ryszard Wrobel passed away due to Alzheimer's Disease. Maria was left alone once again. However, she was surrounded by her children: Barbara, Victor, and Janina. They visited her often with her grandchildren: Tommy, Erika, and Ewa. To keep her company, she cared for a dog Boris and then Toto. In 2003, Maria developed a friendship with Milton, an honest and trustworthy man. They spent their weekends by dining out, going to movie theaters, and taking short trips. Maria always said that her life was very interesting and beautiful, filled with adventures. There were good and happy times and there were sad and less fortunate times. She said: " Life is beautiful, you've got to know how to live, feel, see, discover, and admire everything around you." Maria was able to keep going forward without looking back. She kept a smile on her face. This was the philosophy of her life.Maria liked this quote: There are many roads throughout your life, there are many roads to choose, but the destiny of each and every one of them is to die in the end."This entire biography was written by Maria Lasunowicz ~ Wrobel Our dear Mom, Maria, has left our family with grief and sadness: her daughter Barbara and her husband Tom and grandchildren Tommy and Erika; her son Victor and his wife Bozena and grandson Mateusz; her daughter Janina and granddaughter Ewa.Eulogy by Barbara Clark, daughter:Mom’s philosophy of life was simple: always look to the future. She believed that it was important to acknowledge the past, but never to dwell on it. And it is this positive outlook on life that got mom through what she came to describe as the worst times in her life, but also allowed her to enjoy and cherish the best times.Mom was born on May 1, 1922 on a farm in the village of Niwiska which is located in southeastern Poland. She lived there with her parents and three siblings: an older brother, and a younger sister and brother. Her adolescent years were spent on the family farm and going to school. She completed middle school and had passed the entrance exam to continue her education at a college preparatory high school. Since this school was located in another city in Poland, mom would tell us how her older brother drove her to the train station in a fancy two-seater buggy drawn by her favorite horse. Her dog would always tag along. Then she would board the train to attend school during the week but would go back home to spend the weekends on the farm. Her dog would faithfully be waiting for her beside the buggy as she stepped off the train. Unfortunately, mom would only get to complete about one year of high school because World War 2 broke out across Europe. At 17 years old, mom’s life was about to change for the worst.In February of 1940 mom and her family were deported by the Russians from occupied Poland to Siberia. The people that were taken to Siberia were put to work in camps that consisted of cutting and transporting trees to a lumber yard. Because mom was a pretty and outgoing young girl who spoke Russian, she was given another job. She would wash the huge pots where a Russian cook prepared a barley-like soup. Every camp worker received a small ration of this soup with bread as compensation for having worked a full day. Anyone who was sick or couldn’t work would not be fed. The severe weather and working conditions as well as the primitive and unsanitary living quarters at the work camp resulted in starvation and death. Tragically, mom lost her 46-year old father there. When the German army advanced into Russia in 1941, the Soviet Union panicked and turned to its allies for help. The Allies made an agreement to come to Russia's aid and based on this pact, the workers in Siberia were freed.This newly-found freedom took mom, her three siblings and mother southward to Uzbekistan where a Polish army unit was formed under English command. Sadly, some of the liberated Poles did not survive this transition and perished due to diseases. Tragedy struck again when mom lost her 46-year old mother and 7-year old brother to such diseases. Along with her older brother and younger sister, mom continued to travel with the Polish group under the care of the Allies and arrived at Tehran in Iran. It is there that she met her future husband and my father, 2nd lieutenant Richard Lasunowicz, who had also been freed from the Siberian work camps. As part of the Polish regiment under Allied command, mom and dad spent many years in the Middle East. In Jerusalem, mom was able to continue her education and finally earned a high school diploma. As the war raged on, their Polish army unit under allied command was sent to Italy. Mom and dad were married in Bologna on September 3, 1947. Shortly thereafter, dad left to England with his army unit and mom remained in Italy and worked in a military hospital as a manager of nurses.In 1949 mom was reunited with my father in England and together they emigrated to Cleveland, Ohio in 1951. The best times of her life had begun. I was born six years later. In 1963 we came to Fullerton. And this is where my mother spent the rest of her life. While dad ran his business, mother attended Fullerton College and became a licensed vocational nurse. She continued her professional career as a nurse at St Jude Hospital for 20 years.Mom and dad raised me in the Polish traditions. Holidays were filled with mom’s delicious recipes of borsch, pierogi, babkas and other such delicacies. My parents loved going to the annual New Year’s Eve Military Ball at Fort Mac Arthur in San Pedro. I always thought that my mother looked like a fairy princess in her elegant ball gowns and my dad was her dashing prince in his tuxedo.My parents always expected me to do my best in school and anything that would fall short of such expectations was not acceptable. My mother was my role model when it came to education. We would sit at the kitchen table. She would be studying for her nursing classes and I would do my homework. My mother and father loved to travel so every summer we would take a trip. These included travelling throughout California as well as cross-country trips. We also flew to Canada to visit mom’s younger sister (my aunt June) and her family.In the summer of 1972 we took our most memorable trip. We visited her older brother (my Uncle Eddy) and his family in England and then went on to mom’s birthplace, the farm in Niwiska as well as visiting other beautiful areas in her native Poland. During this trip I met aunts and uncles and cousins for the first time. It was also during this trip that I met my future younger brother, Victor, whom my parents fell in love with and decided to adopt. The best of times continued. A family of three became more whole as a family of four. On August 6, 1977 tragedy struck again. Victor and I lost our beloved father to a heart attack and mom lost her soul mate of 30 years. Mom’s second chance at happiness came in 1981 when she decided to re-marry. With her second husband Richard Wrobel mom was once again able to pursue one of her passions, which was traveling. And travel they did. Mom’s bookcase is packed with albums that hold pages and pages of gorgeous photos from trips that they took to Alaska, Hong Kong, Spain, Greece, Italy, the Holy Land and Egypt. Souvenirs from these trips also decorate her home. They spent close to 19 years together before he passed away. And at the active age of 78, mom was a widow again. So she began to pursue her other interests and passions. She had always been active in her beloved church, Pope John Paul II Polish Center and continued to enjoy attending mass, Dozynki celebrations and being a member of the Ladies Guild. Her life was also filled with being able to spend more time with her children, son and daughter-in law and grandchildren and what she called her best companion, a little Pomeranian. But the travel bug bit her again and she decided to continue pursuing this passion for many more years. This time however, her travel companions were her dear and closest friends and relatives. Mom always said that her life had become bitter sweet. The older she got, the more friends she lost. So, she figured out that she needed to make new friends and became a regular attendee at the Fullerton Senior Center. And in 2003 she met and developed a friendship with a wonderful and kind gentleman, Milton. Milton proposed to mom, but she turned him down. She told him that she was too old to take care of another husband but that they could be companions and go on dates. And that’s what they did until his death a few years ago. A year later, mom’s younger sister passed away. These two deaths impacted her profoundly because she had already lost her older brother to lung cancer in 1992.Mom always told us that her life was interesting and filled with adventures—some very sad and others happy. She believed that life is beautiful—you have to know how to live and that means you have to feel, see, discover and admire everything around you.In the past two years mom started writing her thoughts down in spiral notebooks. In one such notebook she had written her autobiography. In another notebook we found an entry dated March 8, 2016. She wrote this message to her family in Polish: “Be good to one another, cherish and love each other. Hug my little dog and tell him that no one will love him as much as I have. I will see all of you on the other side.”That’s mom: always going forward without looking back.