Edward Walach

Edward was born on August 11, 1923 in Poland in the village of Łany Wielkie, Olkusz County, Kielce. His parents were Andrzej and Stanisława Wałach. Edward had three older brothers, Jan, Wojciech and Mieczysław. The region was agricultural and the family lived and worked on their farm. Edward went to primary school in Łany Wielkie and later in Żarnowiec. When Germany invaded Poland in 1939, Edward’s life changed forever.

Young Edward endured forced labour, building railway tracks from Berlin to Stalingrad from April of 1942 to early March 1943.During this time he also continued his education in clandestine schools. In March of 1943 he was deported from Poland to Regenzburg, Germany to perform forced labour in agriculture. He was never paid for any of the work done and was only provided food and shelter. Although the work was hard, he fondly remembers the German family that he worked for. In fact, on one of his last visits to Poland in the eighties, he travelled to Regenzburg and visited the farm where he had worked so many years ago. When the Second World War ended on May 9th in 1945, part of Germany was occupied by the USA. Edward enlisted in the US military for a few months in Nuremberg, but after a while they did not need additional soldiers, so they sent him to Poland, giving him a train ticket to any Polish city and 100 złotys. He decided to go to Wrocław to settle on an abandoned farm. However, the local government did not give farms to unmarried men. They had enough Polish settlers from the east. Edward decided he did not want to stay in communist Poland, but what was the way out? With one of his friends he escaped to Germany again, this time to Murnau. In 1946 he joined the US Military Guard in Mannheim. In 1948, like many other Poles at this time, Edward immigrated to Canada.

He arrived in Canada at Pier 21 in Halifax on December 3rd, 1948 on the ship Samaria. Edward fondly remembers the hot coffee and cake he received from the Red Cross in Halifax. He wanted to join either the Canadian or US military, but they refused him due to his lack of citizenship. When the Korean War started, both the United States and Canada offered Edward citizenship if he would join the military and go to Korea. Having seen enough of war, he declined. He was young and strong so he got a contract as a miner in a gold mine in Timmins, Ontario. In 1950 Edward moved to Sudbury, Ontario where he was hired by Inco, a mining company. He worked as a miner until he retired in 1985.

In 1958 Edward’s father sent him a letter telling him that it was time to start a family. At his father’s request he went back to Poland in hopes of finding a wife. Edward knew that his future wife had to be from Poland and from the same area, so they could share the same culture, religion and language. His parent’s neighbour introduced him to their niece Barbara Brzezińska, who lived in the neighbouring village of Jasieniec. They had a short courtship and wed on June 1st, 1958 in a small church in Obiechów with many family and friends at their side.

Edward and Barbara returned to Canada to build their new life together, and though their courtship was not long, they loved each other until cancer took Barbara in October 2010.

They had two daughters Christine and Lilly in whom they instilled a love of their shared Polish heritage. They helped to build St. Casimir’s Catholic Church, sent both of their daughters to Polish school, were members of the Polish Club and continued their Polish customs throughout their years together. Their involvement in the Polish community of Sudbury enabled them to maintain their Polish culture. Many of the friends they had naturally became as close as family.

Edward felt most at home with nature and enjoyed fishing (both in winter and summer), hunting, mushroom and blueberry picking, and hiking in the woods with both family and friends. He continued blueberry picking until he was 90 years old. In his retirement years he would regularly meet his friends for coffee in downtown Sudbury. Edward and Barbara enjoyed showing their daughters, and later their grandchildren (Marisa, Andrew and Jacob) the beauty of nature and continuing to share their Polish traditions and culture. The love and dedication Edward and Barbara showed towards friends and family is carried on by the next generation and will never be forgotten.

Edward left Sudbury in 2014 and moved to southern Ontario to live with his daughters. In July 2015, Edward returned to Pier 21 in Halifax where he stood in the exact same doorway he entered into 67 years before.