In Memory of Janine Dalecki

“Established in 2017, the Janine Dalecki Memorial Entrance Bursary is a way of honoring the life of my mother, Janine Dalecki, who passed away September 20, 2016. My mother was born in Poland on March 6, 1934. It was a time of war, poverty, and hardship. My mother described that during this austere time, the one thing that sustained her spirit was her passion for caring for others. When she was about 10 years of age, she said that she would often go to the house of the village healer, where she would help bandage wounds and tend to the sick. My mother said that her destiny was to be a nurse and she “could not imagine doing anything else”. During WWII, she lost both of her parents and eldest brother. Janine and her younger step-brother, were raised by their loving maternal grandmother. They lived on a farm but life was hard and food was scarce. My mother had to look after her younger brother while their grandmother walked to the local village to barter for food and items that they needed to survive. When my mother was about 17 years of age, she was able to attend the School of Agriculture in Baltow, Poland, where she completed her high school education. She never gave up on her dream of nursing and was able to complete a Poland Department of Health Interim Certificate in 1956. After marrying my father in the late 1950s, they both immigrated to Canada. My mother described the first few years in Canada as being “challenging” as she did not speak English and had no support system. She attended English language courses, slowly built a community of friends and in 1961, she became a mother to her only child, a daughter. Unfortunately, her nursing certificate from Poland did not allow her to practice in Canada. In January 1975, she mustered the courage to go back to school at Fanshawe College in London and enrolled in the Nursing Assistant Course. Although the drive between London and St. Thomas (where we lived), was not always favorable in the winter, my mother never missed a day of school. At one time, she reminisced with me that the written assignments were “tough” because English was not her first language, but she loved the practical, hands-on parts of the nursing course. With pride, my father and I watched her graduate in March 1975 when she was 41 years of age. She spent the majority of her nursing career at the Wilson Nursing Home in St. Thomas until it closed in 1984. After that, she worked for a brief period of time at the Southwest Centre for Forensic Mental Health Care retiring around 1996.

My mother’s passion and commitment was in caring for people. She was a devoted wife, caring for my father until he passed away at the age of 92. She was a loving mother, enabling me to pursue my own passion and dreams, even if that meant me moving to the west coast of Canada, over 4,000 kms away from her. She was a nurturing grandmother to her two grandchildren and never failed to encourage them to pursue their passions and dreams. She was a caring aunt to her brother’s three children and their children, forever supportive of their endeavors."

- Lori Nobes, daughter