Even though there was a church in the nearby village of Jata, Frania often remembered catching the train to Lezajsk, to the Sanktuarium of Our Lady, for special feast days. This was a 2 hour trip. When Tony visited Poland recently, he went to the Sanktuarium, took lots of photos, and brought back a picture of the Miraculous Picture of Our Lady of Comfort (Cudowny Obraz Panny Marii Pocieszenia) especially for her. This picture held pride of place amongst the collection of religious paraphernalia which decorated her room in the Nursing Home at Marayong.

Frania told lots of stories about her childhood and they were really happy stories. Even the one where a snake bit her. Her parents caught the snake, boiled it up and smeared the snake fat onto her snake bite. She survived! War broke out on 1 September 1939, with the attack on Poland by the Germans. When the Germans reached the Rzeszow region, Frania was separated from her family and sent by train to a labour camp in Germany. She ran away a number of times, was beaten and sent back to the same camp. Because she had experience working on a farm she eventually ended up being despatched to a German farm, and assigned as a kitchenhand and farmhand. Here as a young girl, she remembers stealing and hoarding bread, sugar and potatoes which she later gave to other Poles who did not have the same opportunities to obtain food.

At the end of the War, in 1945, she was moved to a Displaced Persons’ Camp in Coburg, where she met Tadeusz. Tadeusz Lang (nee Wojtyna) belonged to a group of Polish partisans who had joined up with the American Army occupying Coburg at that time.

Frania’s first child Helena was born in April 1947. They applied to migrate to either America or Canada, but ended up on the American Ship “The General Blatchford” bound for Sydney, because only Australia was taking families. The ship sailed into Sydney Harbour on 11 November 1949, now Rememberance Day and the day in 1918 that Poles re- gained their independence as a nation after not existing for 123 years.

Frania on the far right

Frania’s first impressions of Australia were a combination of heat, dust, flies and rabbits. From Sydney, the family was bundled off to a camp in Parkes, then later moved to other camps in Bathurst, Greta and Scheyville. We think this was related to the availability of work.

Frania’s second child, Henryk was born at Greta in 1950, but survived only 5 months after being poisoned by a batch of contaminated milk. He was part of a larger group of children who suffered the same fate, but there was no proper investigation of what exactly happened. After Henryk, Frania suffered some health problems, and was told there would be no more children. However, her third child Anthony, was born in 1956.

Tadeusz obtained employment with the Sydney Waterboard and presumably to be closer to work, or possibly closer to an established Polish community, he bought land in Rangers Road in Yagoona in 1952. In 1953 he exchanged this land for another property in Rose Street, Yagoona (No. 137), where a fibro house was being built. This house still stands today.

Frania at this time had a number of jobs working in factories as a process worker. She worked in a wool processing factory in Sydenham, and later, when Tadeusz bought vacant land in Chester Hill, she got a job working for the Villawool factory in Villawood. Tadeusz built what is now known as a Granny flat on this Chester Hill property, and the family lived in it for a number of years whilst the brick home was gradually built. Frania would help the builders in the morning, cook dinner, then head off to work the afternoon shift. Tadeusz would come home from work and heat up the cooked meal for himself and his two children.

The family belonged to the parish of St Felix Bankstown where Polish Mass was held on Sundays at 12 o’clock. They travelled by bus, and afterwards, walked to the homes of friends to share Sunday lunch. Everyone always wore their best clothes to Mass – the men all wore suits and the women and children wore the best clothes they had. The Church was always full, with standing room only crowding in at the back and side doors. In the sweltering heat of summer, the men still wore their suits and ties. Frania loved the social meetings – she partied hard, singing, drinking and smoking with their friends and their families.

Unfortunately, Frania and Tadeusz went their separate ways in the late 1970’s, after 32 years of marriage. However, they still wanted to be buried side by side at Rookwood Cemetery.

In the 1980’s and 1990’s, Frania became more involved with the Church. She joined the Rosary Circle, and loved it when it was her turn to provide flowers for the altar, for the Statue of Our Lady at the side of the Church, and also for the statue of Maksymilian Kolbe at the front entrance of the Church. Dressing the altars with the nicest flowers was always important to her.

Frania's 90th birthday

Frania was never more than a basic cook, but we still miss her pierogi, golabki, placki, paczki, potato salad and ogorki which were really exceptional. The pickled ogorki (cucumbers) were of course home-grown and picked exactly at the right time. In late Spring, friends would line up for jars of ogorki and the recipe, but there was never really any recipe – she would say, use a bit of this and a bit of that. One day, Tony and Urszula watched her make ogorki, noting down every single step and piece of advice about how to make the perfect batch of pickled ogorki. They still keep that secret.

Frania lived by herself in the house at Chester Hill, except for a short period when Patrick and Helena came back to Sydney after years of living interstate. In 1999, she was hospitalised with a bad case of pneumonia. Tony received a phone call at work to say that she had suffered a series of heart attacks and to come quickly. When Tony and Helena arrived at the hospital, she was sitting up in bed as if nothing had happened, chatting to her room mates. She came home with 3-4 tablets for heart, liver and kidney to be taken 3-4 times per day. She took the medications for 6 months then took them back to the chemist one day and said “no more”. The chemist told her that she needed the medications to stay alive, but she would not listen. Frania was very stubborn and could not be convinced. She lived on for another 14 years.

Frania was fiercely independent, and refused to live with either of her children. After years of struggling on her own in the house at Chester Hill, she was finally taken to Bankstown Hospital where she stayed for a short time until a place in Marayong became available. Her room at Marayong was the centre of her life for the next 4 years. Here, with her beloved view of the Church from her bed, she could see the green grass, the trees, the Statue of Jesus with arms outstretched, and the rising blades of the Church roof symbolising a pair of praying hands. She looked forward to weekly visits from the family so that she could be taken to Mass in the Church, even though during the week she also attended Masses in either of the two chapels within the Nursing Home complex.

She often asked “why won’t God take me?” and we had to answer, “You’re too stubborn. When He is ready it will be your time”. God was not ready for 4 years. During this time, she was known by all the residents, the staff, the Sisters and the Priests for her amazingly strong, loud, singing voice, and for her amazing memory of all the words to the Polish hymns and songs that she had sung with great love and dedication, as a child, and in fact throughout her whole life. Her intense love for and dedication to her Catholic faith and especially to Mary, was the most important aspect of her life.

Last Thursday, exactly 20 years to the day after Tadeusz had passed away, God finally decided that He was ready for FRANCISZKA LANG - MAMA, MUM, BABCIA, FRANCES, FRANIA. After joining in with prayers for her Last Rites, Frania said “I am tired” and she went to sleep. She slept peacefully and never woke up.