NEW CANAAN, CT — After a Year’s Passing. Teresa Tarnowski held a lifelong goal of being good, and fulfilled it every day. She was warm, empathetic, and generous – full of energy to help, comfort, and enjoy. Born in Gdańsk, Poland on September 24, 1930 to Henryk Strasburger and Olga (née Dunin), she had an older brother, Henry. She fondly recalled her childhood in Warsaw and family summers in Granówko near Poznań.
The German invasion of Poland in September 1939 caused Teresa and her family to flee the country; the image of infinite lines of refugees trudging toward the border impressed itself permanently on her mind. When her father was established as a minister in the Polish government in exile in London, Teresa, her mother and brother embarked for Canada and the United States. Teresa learned English, wrote letters to the local newspaper to urge support for the people of Poland, played at owning a lending library, and savored Saturday afternoon trips to the movies, funded by a beloved uncle who offered a weekly dime.
At the end of the war Teresa’s family were reunited in London. Teresa was accepted at the prestigious Old Vic theater school, and became a stage actress. She also worked as a model, a path opened by her extraordinary personal beauty.
Teresa’s brother Henry introduced her to a college friend, Andrew Adam Tarnowski. They were married in July 1953, and lived in London until emigrating to Rochester, NY. Teresa took pleasure in her job at the university library, appreciating the winter-warm study rooms after years of damp, heatless buildings in England. Andrew and Teresa later went on to Princeton, NJ, and then to New Canaan, CT, where they raised three children, Andrea, Olga and Peter.
After years at home as a mother, Teresa took up work again as both a volunteer and a paid employee. She taught exercise to children and adults, did clerical work through a temp agency, led the community United Way campaign, recorded many books as a reader for the blind, and – the job she always said she most relished – took on a paper route, the sole woman delivering the New York Times on the back roads of New Canaan in the wee hours. In the early 1980s, her life took an important turn when she joined the international relief organization Americares. For the next fifteen years, she travelled with medicines and supplies to numerous nations in distress, such as Lebanon, Armenia, Haiti, Sudan, Pakistan, and Rwanda. Her understanding of the human costs of disaster allowed her to listen with an open heart.
Though she left Americares in her mid 60s, Teresa went on to yet another career, returning to school to earn an instructor’s certificate in English as a second language. Teaching adults in programs throughout southern Connecticut until past the age of 80, she was devoted to her students. Her own experiences in the U.S., first as a refugee and later as an immigrant, gave her insight into challenges they faced.
In her last years, Teresa cared unflinchingly for her husband in his decline, taking on many burdens with independent spirit. When Andrew Tarnowski died in 2017, she declared herself grateful to have been able to do all she did.
Teresa died on September 15th, 2019 in Connecticut. Her children, grandchildren and beloved gardens miss her dearly.