Tadeusz 'Ted' Solecki

SOLECKI, Tadeusz (Ted) - Ted died in his sleep at the Douglas Memorial Hospital in Fort Erie on Sunday, April 10, three weeks before his 93rd birthday. He was born in 1923 near Warsaw, Poland, the son of Maria and Romuald Solecki. His mother was from Byelorussia, his father was Polish. He lived through the war years in Warsaw, leaving just before the arrival of the Soviet army. He met his wife, Daniela Mijatovic, of Mijatovo Kolo, Montenegro, in 1945 in a refugee camp in Austria. They made their way through post-war Austria and Italy to England where they spent a decade in a Red Cross refugee camp at Doddington Park, Cheshire. They emigrated to Canada in 1955 with two children, Zdzislaw (Sam) and Lydia, four tan cardboard suitcases, and $60 Canadian dollars. The family settled in Niagara Falls where Ted lived the rest of his life. He worked at Provincial Engineering as a maintenance engineer repairing the machines that made the cranes. He liked machines, and he was very good at what he did: as his grand-daughter Tara once told a small friend, ‘My grand-father can fik anything.’ And he could. In retirement he divided his time between building large model ships that often took 1600 hours to make and catching up on his reading. In the weeks before his death he was reading about daily life in the ancient world and the history of the Middle East. As a husband, father, friend, worker and citizen, he was a man of his word and kept the terms of the moral and social contract we make with each other. He was predeceased by his wife (2001). He will be much missed by his children; his son-in-law Rick Powers; his grandchildren Vanessa (Chris Nelson), Tara (Jason Start) and André (Erin Callery); and great grandchildren Tannis, Bronwyn and Cecilia. The family wish to express their warm thanks to the staff at Niagara Falls General Hospital, Dr. ‘Al,’ and Dr. Ian Brown; and to the staff at the Douglas Memorial Hospital in Fort Erie, Rosy, Angie, Tim and Dr. Scher. Cremation has taken place. Arrangements entrusted to PATTERSON FUNERAL HOME, 6062 Main St. A Celebration of Life will take place at a later date. Online condolences at www.pattersonfuneralhome.com