Obituary of Jane M. Szewczyk

Beautiful, fun-loving, independent-minded, and courageous, Jane Marie Szewczyk breathed her last at the age of 99 on September 9, 2021, after a short illness. Jane was born in Buffalo, New York, to Maryanna Goca and Ignacy Tworkowski. When she was eleven months old, her father died, leaving her mother to raise seven children. The family were members of the vibrant Polish community of Buffalo's Saint Stanislaus Roman Catholic Church, where, during the Christmas Eve midnight mass of 1946, a young World War II veteran, Andrew Peter Szewczyk, slipped an engagement ring on her finger. The couple were married for 68 years until Andrew's death in 2015 at the age of 95. Jane was a loving mother to their three children: Judith Hardesty (James), the late Andrew III (Alison), and Nancy Jane Delvin (Barry). Always ready for a laugh, her social life revolved around many extended-family picnics and celebrations, and she also was an active member, together with two of her sisters, Lillian Czarnecki (Stephen) and Stephanie Peszko (Casimir), in the East Buffalo Democrat Junior League. Mechanically inclined, she delighted in dismantling and rebuilding electrical devices and in maintaining her prized cuckoo clock with its figures that danced when the hour struck. After raising her children, she enjoyed traveling with friends on adventures to casinos, where she treated herself to dining and entertainment and usually left with more money than she had brought. Late in life, she founded The Happy Women's Club, with the object of promoting smiles among its more than 225 card-carrying members. Her last years were spent in the care of her daughter Judy and son-in-law, the late Jim Hardesty, and finally in the Seneca View nursing facility in New York's Finger Lakes region, where her "sweet smile" was treasured by her caregivers. Jane is survived by her two daughters, four grandchildren, four great-grandchildren, and numerous nieces and nephews and their progeny. She will be especially missed by her faithfully devoted nephew, Charles Czarnecki (Jan) and niece, Mary Ann Barone (Joe). A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 10:00 am on Friday, September 17, 2021 at St. Mary's of the Lake Church, 905 N. Decatur St., Watkins Glen. Burial will be in Bath National Cemetery.