Miroslawa Wenke

Miroslawa Wenke passed away peacefully on November 7th, 2017 at the Lund Home Hospice in Gilbert, Arizona. She was surrounded by her loving family. Miroslawa was born on January 1st, 1923 in the suburbs of Chernivtsi, Bukovina, Ukraine. At the age of 18 and newly married to her loving husband Otto, she was forced by the Communist threat to leave her beloved Bukovina. After the war and five years as a displaced person she and her young family, including her beloved daughter Zirka, immigrated to the United States in 1950. In her new home, in New Jersey, she started to work for Tungsol. Later she worked for Bristol Myers Pharmaceuticals in Hillside, NJ. The longest job she held was as a retail clerk for Two Guys Stores and later Bradlee's Department Stores in Union, NJ. From there she retired. She always talked about her years in retail and how they helped her develop an excellent command of the English language. She resided in Union for the last 45 years untill she moved to Arizona last month to be close to her great grandchildren in her final days. Miroslawa's community activities were centered on her membership in the Association of Bukovinian Ukrainians of America. She was active with that organization for years and attended their annual meetings and dinner dances held in different cities of the US. She was proud to be Bukovinian Ukrainian. She also attended Holy Trinity Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Irvington, NJ till they closed in 2015, were she was a member of the St. Olha's Sisterhood. Miroslawa was predeceased by her husband Otto and daughter Zirka Zogheib. She is survived by: her granddaughter Stephanie Larson, grandson-in-law Scott Larson and great grandchildren Aiden(13), Owen(11), and Ian(9); first cousins Daria Wenke Calluori, Sylvia Wenke Kuziw and Rafael Wenke; members of the Datzkiwsky, Koch, Wasilow and Pelechaty families here in the US, in Ukraine and wherever they might be in the rest of the world.