♥My Great Grandmother♥

Daughter of Franciszek Kalinowski.
We do not know her mother's name, only her father's was on her death certificate. Anyone who might know is now gone.

♥Cherished Wife of Pawel Dolecki.

♥Beloved Mother of Angeline Dolecki Pocieznicki, Anthony Dolecki, John Dolecki, Anna Dolecki Wroblewski, Mary Dolecki Klimball, Katarzyna (Katherine) Dolecki Koper, Piotr Dolecki, Walter Dolecki, Agnes Dolecki Krajewski, and Frank Dolecki.

Anna, Paul, and their 3 oldest children, Angeline, Anthony, & John immigrated to America to the area known as Poletown, on the east side of Detroit, Michigan. This was the first large wave of Polish immigration to come to the Detroit area after the Civil War.

The Dolecki Family was one of the founding families of Sweetest Heart of Mary Catholic Church in 1889.

Busia Anna was a very stern and strict person. That was how she was able to raise 10 children after moving to a foreign country with her husband. Her life was not an easy one.
(If you look at her in the family photo you can see the stern look on her face.)

I am told she was a very good woman, a wonderful and loving Mother.
She was the start of all the good cooks in the family. She was able to make a meal for her family out of a bone, vegetables and bread, and today it's hard to find a good soup bone.
She made kielbasa, pierogi, golapki, czarnina, all the good stuff.
She taught my Grandma and all her daughters how to make all the wonderful recipes that we love and cherish now.

The third photo is Pawel & Anna's 50th Jubilee (Anniversary) with 3 of their grandchildren; Irvin Koper (center-My Daddy), Bernadine Wroblewski (right), & Bernadette Krajewski (left).

That day Busia Anna was so happy and proud that she let all her older grandchildren have a taste of the Jezynowka (Polish blackbery brandy) that everyone was celebrating with.
It's something that her grandchildren that are in their 80's and 90's remember about her now.

Busia Anna was a remarkable woman.

I am thankful that she was brave enough to follow a dream across an ocean.