Irena Florentyna Starczewski

Irena Florentyna Starczewski, 91, of New Britain, died Saturday, March 13, 2010 at St. Francis Hospital in Hartford. She was the widow of Jozef Starczewski, and daughter of the late Wladyslaw and Maria Jablonska Szczypinski. Irena Starczewski was born a coal miner's daughter on September 26, 1918, on the banks of the Ohio River in Bellaire, Ohio, by the train bridge to Wheeling, WV and was the third of five children. Her parents, who had originally immigrated through Ellis Island via Hamburg in 1910, and her siblings and she herself returned to Poland in 1922 after the reconstitution of national sovereignty. She lived on a large farm her father operated until the depression, and loved horses, country life, and sleigh rides. She became a seamstress as a teenager to help supplement the family income, which she practiced all her life. She had skilled and knowing hands throughout her life. In 1943, he married Jozef Starczewski during the Second World War in Warsaw, Poland and had three children. She struggled mightily to survive and keep her family alive and together during the Second World War while her husband and brothers were condemned to German prisons. She knew hunger and deprivation, was a homeless refugee, and during one forced route by the Germans, evaded them to care for her near lifeless child. Turned out of a hideout by others fearing her baby may cry and alert the enemy, she then spent nights in roofless shelter with her sister until the Russian front surged past them. In 1962 the family immigrated to the United States to her oldest brother Apolinary. She lived in New Britain for 48 years. She enjoyed home life, preparing holiday meals for the family, traveling on family road trips, picking mushrooms, tag saling and thrived on close family life. Irena experienced life and lifestyles from the end of the 19th through 21st centuries, and all the great upheavals of history, politics, and technology. She believed the greatest proven advancements of the last century were medicine and the invention of the telephone system, because it allowed people to keep in close, reassuring contact at far-flung parts of the world such as her family experienced. Remembered with tremendous fondness by friends and family, Irena was a well liked, respected, generous, honorable, humorous, and kind-hearted woman; a wonderful cook whose life revolved around children, family, and respect of tradition. Her overwhelmingly hospitable nature and charm touched many people throughout the years, our dear Mamusia and Babcia will be dearly missed. Surviving are two daughters, Elizabeth Jarzebowski and her husband Adam, Lala Radziwon and her husband Henry, and a son, Andrew Starczewski and his wife Mona all of New Britain; a sister, Stefania Celina Celeda of Sweden; three grandchildren, Agnes Wnuk and her husband Mariusz, Conrad Jarzebowski, and Martin Jarzebowski; two great-grandchildren, Caroline and Stefan Wnuk; a nephew, Andrew Szczypinski; a niece Hanna Jarzebowski; and family in Europe. She is also survived by her lifelong faithful friend Asi Lempicki. Thanks to the staff and volunteers at St. Francis Hospital for their kindness. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Friday at 9:30 AM at St. Francis of Assisi Church. Burial will follow in Sacred Heart Cemetery. Calling hours are Friday morning from 8:00 AM to 9:00 Am at Erickson-Hansen Funeral Home, 411 So. Main St., New Britain. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to St. Francis of Assisi Church.