Cegiełkas - Poland


Maria and Marian Cegiełka celebrate their sixtieth wedding anniversary in 2013. Marian, born in the town of Grabów, turns ninety-two years old while Maria, from Glowaczowa, will be aged eighty. Maria and Marian, parents of Magdalena, an only child, have lived in Warsaw, Poland since 1953. Grandparents to four boys in Canada they are ecstatic when their closest family visits from across the Atlantic Ocean.
Marian survived labour camps in Germany, weeks of the Warsaw Uprising and two mass executions on the streets of the 'fighting city' of Warsaw. After World War II Maria and Marian witnessed their country fall under the totalitarianism of the Soviet Union and Communism.


In September of 1998 Maria, was getting off of a bus when she let some older ladies in front of her. As she got off the doors closed on her, she struggled to free herself, the bus began to drive away and she fell under it. Passengers on the bus yelled to the driver to stop because a woman had fallen! The bus did not stop and the horrible accident that ensued crushed her right leg. Maria has suffered greatly for close to fifteen years. She does not leave home and is very limited in her mobility around their apartment. The disability has left her with continued physical pain and a deep and lasting impact on her psyche.


Although in recent years the Cegiełkas have hired a helper, Marian still tends to many of Maria’s daily needs.  Rituals seem to keep them going and although Marian’s overall physical strength has greatly diminished in recent years, he manages to leave home from time to time.


Images made in 2013, 2014, 2017 and 2018. 


A photograph of the Cegiełkas from their wedding day in 1953. 

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Marian prepares cold cuts for a meal in his and Maria's kitchen.

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Maria looks over the balcony.

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A photograph of the Cegiełka's only child Magdalena as an infant.

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Marian reads at his desk.

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The dining room table with breakfast laid out one morning at the Cegiełkas.

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Marian, holding a coffee pot, attends to his wife Maria in her bedroom.

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A butterfly decoration on the curtains at the Cegiełkas.

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Marian takes the stairs to their second floor apartment.

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The year after the first images were taken, a return to the Cegiełkas over the Christmas holidays in 2014.

A photograph of the the Kozaks (four grandsons, daughter, and son-in-law) lies beside a postcard received by the Cegiełkas from Morocco in 2003.

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Maria, on her bed, looks for a phone number in her notes. 

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Marian gestures with his hand as he speaks about some of his experiences during and following WWII.  

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Marian wipes his eyes of tears as he says goodbye on Christmas Day. 

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Visits in 2017, more than two years later. 


Ninety-six-year-old Marian out for a coffee with taxi driver and friend Josef. 

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Maria looking out the window of the living room. 

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Various pills on the dining room table.

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Marian in the kitchen preparing for breakfast. 

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Maria eats a meal in her bed.

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A handwritten note by Maria adhered to a frame in Marian's room with the phone number to a funeral home.

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Maria lies on a stretcher as she is taken to a hospital following an attempted suicide, one of many.

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Marian eats dinner in the kitchen.

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Family photographs on Marian's desk.

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Marian sleeps in his room.

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Marian Cegiełka passed away on May 15, 2018 after returning home from a week-long stay in hospital. 


His immediate family members arrive from Canada to tend to funeral arrangements and to say goodbye to their beloved father and grandfather.

Magdalena in her parents' kitchen with personal support worker Eva.

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Photographs of Marian laid out on his bed.

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Maria gestures from her bed,  from which she no longer gets up from.

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Paul, one of the Cegiełka's four grandsons, holds a display room casket at the offices of the

Służew funeral home.

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Magdalena heads towards the Służew funeral home in Warsaw to say goodbye to Marian.

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Marian lies in repose at the 

Służew funeral home.

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Magdalena visits her father for the last time.

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Magdalena visits Maria, her mother, at the hospital.

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Maria in an ambulance on the way to the hospital, forced to go for yet another visit because of her frail condition.

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Magdalena shares a meal with family members. 

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Andrew, the youngest of four grandsons, cleans up in the kitchen of his grandparents' home.

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Martin, one of the Cegiełka's four grandsons, sits on Marian's bed. 

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Magdalena and her family at the cemetery during Marian's funeral.

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