Obituary: Sabina Szlam

Sabina Szlam, of Atlanta, Ga., passed away Sunday morning. With her were her children and spouses, Alek, Fania, Roman, and Kyle. She is survived by her two sons, two grandchildren, five great-grandchildren, many nieces, nephews, and other family and many friends.

Mrs. Szlam was born in a small town outside of Warsaw, Poland, in 1929, the third of three daughters. Besides other work, her parents rented orchards in the summer to sell fruits and vegetables throughout the year. Her father was also a cobbler. He was a very devout Jewish man. Her mother was also a very dedicated homemaker.

In 1939, when the war broke out, the family were forced to flee their town eastward, eventually ending up in Vladimir, Russia. During the war, as a young girl, she suffered many hardships including hunger, frost, many escapes, being strafed, and more. After returning to Poland post-war, eventually her family settled in Kłodzko, where, at 17, she met Michal, who would be her husband from the following year until his death in 2000.

Their first son was born two years after the marriage. Sabina and Michal, and other family member couples and parents, settled to making a life for their families, and to helping rebuild Poland. In 1956, many of their family members moved to Israel. In the late 1950s, Michal was transferred to Wrocław, Poland, where their second son was born.

Sabina was a homemaker, worked part-time as a bookkeeper, and, along with Michal, completed her GED. In 1969, with the extremely high antisemitic climate in Poland, they, along with the other two remaining families, moved to the U.S., settling in Atlanta.

Mrs. Szlam, along with the other members of her family now in Atlanta, began their lives anew for the third time. She found a daytime job within walking distance of their apartment, cooked for, and took care of the family and the apartment, and helped Michal with the extra work he brought home every evening.

She learned English, and how to drive, and continued this way until osteoporosis forced her to retire early. She helped Michal run his post-retirement business until he became terminally ill. She took complete care of Michal and her house until his death. She suffered his loss greatly for the rest of her life. She started volunteering and exercising, and continued thus until, again, osteoporosis, forced her to limit her activities. She loved her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren very much. She loved nature, flowers, birds, and the wide, blue, blue sky.

The family would like to acknowledge with special appreciation the kindness, help, patience, and dedication of Mrs. Szlam’s wonderful caregivers of over eight years: Amouna, Fedla, Julia, Sokhna, Mariama, Jackie, Sonia, Ndeye, and Awa, and others.

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