August 3, 1923 – November 29, 2024
Irena Ładak, née Talach, died on November 29, 2024, in Warren, Michigan, at the age of 101.
Born in Sucha, Poland in 1923, she was 16 and living in Warsaw when Nazi Germany invaded and occupied her country on September 1, 1939. Along with most Poles, she endured five years of brutal occupation. When the Warsaw Uprising began on August 1, 1944, she joined the Polish insurgents and fought for two horrific months, often under enemy fire, as a combat medic. A barely visible shrapnel scar on her cheek was a lifelong testament to her courage in war.
Following the collapse of the Uprising, she and thousands of other Polish insurgents, many of them women, were transported to Germany for forced labor. She spent the rest of the war working on a German farm. After the war, still in Germany, she met and married Marian Ładak, a Polish Army officer and survivor of the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps. Unable to return to a Communist-ruled Poland, Irena and her husband, along with their three-year-old son, Andrzej, arrived in Detroit in 1951.
Putting the war behind them, they got on with life, working tirelessly to raise three children, teaching, encouraging, and preparing them to be successful, productive and proud Americans. They insisted, among other things, that their children write and speak proper English. At the same time, Irena, with the help of her husband, took the lead in teaching their children about their Polish heritage. They observed Polish traditions and ensured their children were fluent in Polish and knew Polish history, culture and literature. Active for decades in Detroit’s Polish community, Irena and Marian raised and educated their children in the Catholic faith that was so important in their lives, putting them through Catholic grade school and high school, followed by college. Above all, they taught their children the importance of lifelong learning; of unquestionable honesty and integrity; and of moral, as well as physical, courage, especially in difficult situations. By their own example, they encouraged their children to speak up against wrongdoing and evil, in whatever form.
Having proved her courage in war, Irena Ładak went on to be the quintessential Polish mother—hardworking, loving, inspiring, remarkably efficient, and passionately dedicated to her family as well as to her Polish community. From their earliest days in America, she and Marian kept in touch with their families in a Poland ravaged by war and oppressed by a Russian-imposed communist regime. Despite their own struggles as immigrants in a free country, they helped their relatives behind the Iron Curtain with packages of clothing and food. Sometimes they even sent a few dollars, which could be exchanged on the black market to obtain much-needed supplies. As in many family matters, Irena led these efforts. She was in contact with both sides of the family in Poland, by mail and telephone, until the last months of her life. Today, her children are in regular contact with their relatives in Poland.
Throughout their lives, Irena and Marian were active in various Polish social and heritage-based organizations, most notably Polish Scouting. Irena was also legendary for her culinary skills, especially (though not only) for Polish dishes such as zupa ogórkowa (dill pickle soup), flaki (tripe soup) and gołąbki—not to mention her pączki, tortes and kajmaks.
After the death of her husband in 1987, Irena continued to lead an active social life. She was blessed with a close circle of mutually supportive girlfriends with whom she shared both happy and sad events. She was the last of them.
She will be laid to rest alongside her husband, beneath a simple tombstone engraved with these words: “Umiłowanie Boga, ojczyzny i rodziny zostanie z nami na wieki.” (“The love of God, country and family will be with us for the ages.”)
Irena is survived by her three children: Andrew Ladak (Zosia Sylwanowicz Ladak); Elizabeth Urban; Anna Ladak-Tymowski (husband Franciszek Tymowski). She is also survived by five grandsons: Matthew (Ania) Urban; Jack Urban; Adam Tymowski (wife Melissa Piorkowski); Robert (Alycia) Tymowski; Michael Ladak. Irena leaves behind four great-grandchildren: Evelyn, Eleanor, Gabriel and Gwendolyn Tymowski. She also leaves behind close and dear family in Poland, on both her side and Marian’s.
Irena will lie In State on Thursday, December 5th from 10:00am until the time of her Funeral Mass at 11:00am at St. Martin de Porres Catholic Church, 31555 Hoover Road, Warren, MI.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests a donation to:
Polish Scouting Organization of Michigan, with memo specifying Infrastructure Fund.
Andrzej Ładak
