Nina L. (Kursa) Szostak

Nina L. Kursa Szostak

Family will gather in the Kowalski Funeral Home, 515 Roselle Street, Linden on Tuesday, January 22, 2019, at 9:30 a.m. for a private service at 10:00 a.m.. The prayers of committal will precede her entombment in the family crypt in St. Gertrude Cemetery in Colonia, New Jersey.

Nina was born in the eastern part of Poland in December of 1935.  Throughout her childhood she and her parents endured the hardships of World War II, never losing strength and determination, pioneering a new life in the face of adversity.  Her family’s perilous travels began in 1939 as heartlessly displaced Polish citizens were rounded up during the Holocaust by Stalin’s orders and deported. Their tireless journey fraught with starvation, disease and loss of beloved family members through Siberia, Uzbekistan, Iran, India, and Uganda, Africa is chronicled in history.  The stateless refugees, unable to return to their homeland, Poland, settled in Leicester, England in 1947. Nina and her husband met in England and were wed.  They soon after emigrated to the United States in 1958 and eventually settled in Roselle, NJ, where she resided for the past 54 years.

Nina’s creative and adventurous spirit embodied all aspects of her life. A true artisan, she was an avid gardener, a talented painter, accomplished seamstress, experienced baker, and culinary artist, but, above all, a loving mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and wife.

Predeceased by her parents, Walerian and Julia Kursa and her granddaughter, Kristin; Nina is survived by her husband, Czeslaw Szostak, her son, Christopher, her two daughters Barbara Balchunas and her husband, James and Theresa Evans and her husband, Michael; her six grandchildren, Adam Balchunas, David Balchunas, Juliana Grahlmann, Katherine Nugent, Emily Evans and Michael Evans and her two great-grandchildren, Thea Balchunas and Charlotte Grahlmann.  Nina’s three brothers, Henry (Dick) Kursa, John Kursa and Richard Kursa and one sister, Barbara Lancaster, still reside in England.

In lieu of flowers memorial donations to http://ebresearch.org would be greatly appreciated. EB Research Partnership is the largest non-profit dedicated to funding research aimed at treating and ultimately curing Epidermolysis Bullosa.

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