Sepia Saturday Week 22 Annie Gorlewski Click here to connect to other's Sepia posts

                Anna Ostroski Kaluzny Gorlewski 1901—1982

This photo taken in  1940 is Annie on the right holding her daugher Katherine, with my grandmother Rose Ostrowski on the left.  I remember Annie, and her daughter, Katherine vividly because we (me and my Grandma) visited them often, sometimes detouring  on our way home from the Sunday movies. Annie may have been my grandmother’s God daughter or certainly her favorite niece because my Grandma had a very soft spot for her. She always took some food and a few dollars to Annie on every visit; I can still see my Grandmother sticking her hand in her purse and palming money off to Annie and Annie shaking her head in refusal as we made our way out the door but my grandmother always prevailed! I can still hear her say, "we take care of each other Annie!"  I  believe they did look out for one another and may have been identical in generously helping others. When I get to my grandmother’s stories I’ll explain the source of her pin money and I suspect this is what she shared, from her own abundance.

When I got a bit older, I considered that Annie who lived in a very poor part of town might have needed help and my grandmother was always one to help others. Regardless, I absolutely enjoyed going there because Katherine, the daughter was my first “friend.” Katherine was almost six years older than me but she welcomed me and was always willing to play dolls and have tea parties with me. When I was not quite five years old, she taught me how to make my first salad, slicing apples and a banana, sprinkling with bits of nuts and then adding salad dressing. I just thought Katherine was the cat’s meow.

Until I came along, Katherine was the center of attention but she was never jealous of the new kid in town. They said Katherine absolutely doted on me, took to me immediately and from the time my mom brought me home from the hospital; Katherine held me and watched my every movement. This would have been when Mom and my infant self lived with Mom’s parents and her sister, my aunt Virgina either next door or a door down from Annie. When I was nearly a year old Mom and her parents and sister pooled their funds to buy the home way up the hill, where Mom lived until she died in 2004. Here I am about 3 years old, on one of our stop by visits, when Katherine put me in the cabbage patch in the garden; I thought that was a hoot, remember I loved crawling around in the dirt around my grandpap.  They said that whatever Katherine thought up for me it was all good! She was a girl way ahead of the times, creating the first cabbage patch doll! I have no photos of Katherine with me, which I find strange, but then photos were not just normally taken of kids at play.

Annnie was the first of 10, 12 or 14 children born to great uncle John Ostrowski and his wife Frances Gapinski and as such the sister of Lizzie Waszkiewicz whom I posted on Sepia week 15.  Research varies on the number of children in that family but at least 10 survived. Uncle John dropped the “w” from Ostrowski so that the family spelled it Ostroski, one of the first name changes. Researching Annie helped me identify others in the previously posted Ostroski gathering photo of about 1910 when Annie was about 9 years old.   I have cropped them here; Annie is the little girl with her brother Ignatius next to her, parents John and Frances are seated with another baby on Frances’ lap, perhaps that is Frances.  The woman to the left of John is still unidentified.  Notice how Annie already has her mother's lips and serious face.  And  compare the look on John's face here with below on the steps with the cigar in his mouth--very similar. 

Browsing through my old photos to feature Annie led me to several interesting discoveries, the first that Annie was married twice, first in 1919 to Frank Kaluzny who died in 1927, reportedly from complications from World War I. So Annie was one of the first in the family to lose her husband to war and become a war widow with a baby. That would have made her a model for her cousin, my own mother years later in 1944 when my father’s death occurred. Annie and Frank Kaluzny had two sons, Raymond born March 3, 1923 and Frankie born January 1, 1927. I have limited memory about Frankie who was not living at home long before I came along and absolutely no recall of Raymond. My grandmother had this clipping of Frank’s marriage to Camille Slezycki in June 1979, another event I don’t recall.

Until I researched this I only knew of Annie’s second husband John J. Gorlewski, whom we called Bosco, another name I cannot explain but speculate that with the many John’s in the family including Annie’s father, maybe it was better to use a nickname. These two photos show the very strong physical resemblance between Annie’s father, John Ostroski and John “Bosco” Gorlewski who was only 10 years younger than her father. Evidently Bosco wore hats, which Uncle John did not.  Bosco and Annie had two children, Katherine born March 9, 1939 and Johnny born January 26, 1943. The photo of Annie and Bosco standing with Johnny and Katherine is earlier in 1943. This photo on the porch with her parents behind her and my grandmother to her right and Johnny on her lap is from  later in 1943 by Johnny's appearance and it may be one of the few with Annie almost smiling.  I don't remember her as  full of laughter as others, but I know that she was very dear and caring.

Johnny would have been almost two years older than me, but I recall little of him; perhaps he was one of those boys who steered clear. In 1945, here is Johnny trying to hold on to me but they said I wanted to go toward whoever had the camera and that I wanted my Grandma!. I think Johnny was not all that amused at having to pose with me, but someone must have thought it a good idea.

Bosco worked many long hard hours and double shifts when he could so was not at home much but when he was he seemed to be ill. I believe he suffered strokes and may have been recovering. This is the only other picture of him that I have, in the snow, noted as just weeks after Katherine’s birth in 1939.

Annie was a caretaker, I suspect that came with being the first born child into the huge family. At one time she was raising her youngest brother, Raymond, shown here between Frank Kaluzny, Annie’s oldest son and Katherine. This photo of the three is dated 1942.   My aunt always said that way back then Katherine was just waiting for another little girl to come along, a couple years ahead of my time. 

 If anyone, especially a woman in the extended family was ill or not up to duties, Annie helped out and was one of the first to cook a meal and deliver it or bake something and take it to cheer up a person. She must have had to beat her Aunt Rosie (my grandma) across the river to the aunts and cousins, but often she did. I believe that she cared for both her parents and that her mother lived with her after her father died. I can recall an old lady lying in a bed when we visited.

I don’t ever remember my Grandmother and Annie just sitting down and talking during visits; seems they were either in the kitchen cooking or cleaning something up, or washing something or ironing.   I believe that Annie took in washing and ironing and mending and that may have accounted for some of the activity.


Annie made quilts and always had some sewing underway. My aunt Virginia said that Annie taught her to quilt in 1940 after she graduated from high school. I have that “one and only” as my aunt preferred to sew and crochet and never made another quilt. I am working at restoring pieces on that quilt which I rescued from my aunt’s basement several years ago. Here they are in 1940 after my aunt’s high school graduation, Annie on the right and Virginia on the left.
Annie died in 1982 when I lived in California, so I did not return to PA for the funeral. Sadly I have no information about what ever happened to her children and their families. It is a sad testimony to Annie, who spent so much time caring for anyone in her entire extended family that all are now scattered perhaps around the country. That was what happened when the mills and plants closed, in that small town in PA, everyone moved on. Perhaps further research will lead us back and or someone will see this Sepia Post when they Google and contact me as happened with other photos.

This has been an interesting week of research using Ancenstry.com.  If I could do a time warp and interview someone from the past, it would be Annie, I expect she had many tales and a lifetime of experiences with all her brothers, sisters and family.  She must not have had big weddings because my grandmother would surely have had those photos.  Ahh, well, I am blessed to have what I do, so many in the collection.  Were it not for Sepia Saturday I wouldn't be getting this all  posted and shared.

Click on the title  as always to go to the Sepia site and read others and see the wonderful photos.