Her funeral will be held at St Patrick’s Catholic Church, Benoni on January 10.
Niescior, together with her parents Wladyslaw and Karolina, plus siblings Staszek, Janek and Eugenia Surowiec, moved several times due to the circumstances they faced – until their move to Uzbekistan, where Niescior’s baby sister, Eugenia, died of malnutrition en-route.
Wladyslaw joined the army and desperate Karolina put Niescior and her brother, Janek, into an orphanage.
The siblings travelled with other orphans through Iran, to a Polish refugee camp in Tanzania – and were eventually reunited with their mother and older brother, Staszek, in Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia).
At the age of 14, Niescior lived in England but was considered too old to go to school – and became a waitress at a hotel in Newquay, Cornwall.
She learnt English by reading magazines, but never lost her Polish accent.
Niescior married Zdzislaw Niescior in St Alban’s in 1955.
The couple lived in St Alban’s, where their four daughters, Barbara Scrivens, Krystyna Szparagowska, Elizabeth Gillham and Marianna Poole, were born.
They immigrated to South Africa in 1967 and settled in Rynfield, where another daughter, Stefania de Bruin, and son, Edward Niescior, were born.
“English may have been Kazimiera’s second language, but her extensive vocabulary made her a formidable Scrabble player,” said de Bruin
“She loved playing to such an extent, that even without a challenger, she would rope in ‘Mr X’ – one of the few who managed to beat her.
“When there weren’t enough partners for a game of Canasta, she turned to Patience, jigsaws and Sudoku.”
Her daughters remember their mother for her dressmaking – a skill she learnt in refugee camps; she made all their wedding dresses.
She loved gardening and bright flowers, was a self-taught bookkeeper and kept the accounts for her husband – when they started a tool and die making business, Maple Engineering, in Brakpan soon after they moved to South Africa.
Zdzislaw died in 2001 and Edward carried on the family business.
Niescior will be remembered by her children: Barbara, Krystyna, Elizabeth, Marianna, Stefania and Edward; her grandchildren Kim Nicholas, Dominik Szparagowski, Michael Scrivens, Aimee Smythe, Xena Gillham, Sean Poole, Jenna Gillham, Oliver Szparagowski, Kasia Szparagowska, Louise Poole, Wendy Poole, Teagan de Bruin, Anastasia Niescior, Juliana Niescior, Brooklin de Bruin; and her great-grandchildren: Leighton Nicholas, Levi Szparagowski, Olivia Poole, Quinn Smythe and Kyle Nicholas.
Also read: Fred Bredenkamp dies aged 92
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