Jadwiga Kochanowski, 88, formerly of Stevens Point and recently of the town of Eau Pleine, died on Friday, January 2, 2015 at Strawberry Lane Medical & Rehabilitation Center in Wisconsin Rapids. Her funeral service will be at 11am Saturday, January 10, 2015 at the Martens/Rembs Funeral Home in Junction City. Burial will take place in Runkel Cemetery, Town of Eau Pleine, Portage County, WI. Visitations will be on Saturday, from 9am until time of services, at Martens/Rembs Funeral Home. Jadwiga was born on May 3, 1926 in the village of Haly, Volhynia, Poland, to Michal and Dominika (Sliwinska) Sztapka. In 1945 she was united in marriage to Boleslaw "William" Kochanowski, Sr. in Germany. She is survived by five children: John (Margaret) Kochanowski, The Villages, FL; Ursula (Chris) Nogic Reston, VA; Casmier "Casey" (Brenda) Kochanowski Junction City; Boleslaw (Anna) Kochanowski Junction City; Peter (Kim) Kochanowski Oak Creek, WI; 16 grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren. She is further survived by siblings: Sophia Himmel Rockford, IL; Edward (Helen) Sztapka of Morton Grove, IL; William Stapka of Chicago; John (Jo) Sztapka of Morton Grove; Eugene (Germaine) Sztapka, Tempe, AZ; and sister-in-law Carol Sztapka, Waverly, KY. She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband of 40 years, and brothers, Walter and Stefan Sztapka, sister, Janina Sztapka, and an infant sister. Jadwiga's childhood in Haly was a world of horse-drawn wagons and self-reliant neighbors. At her mother's side, "Jadzia" learned the arts of pickling, kielbasa making, sour-dough baking and babka, too. She ran like a deer and loved to work with her father and brothers in the fields. In 1943, Jadwiga's 19th Century world violently met the 20th when Hitler's blitzkrieg crashed through Haly. She and her family were squeezed into the railroad boxcars headed to Chemnitz, Germany to serve as forced labor under the iron fist of the Nazis. Chemnitz felt the massive bombs much like nearby Dresden. Life and death months finally saw her through the war. It did end. Before the Russians could arrive from the east, Jadwiga and family trudged west to the American side. A kind of normality slowly came to her at the huge displaced persons camp, Gablingen, a former German air base. Here, husband-to-be, Boleslaw, a refugee from a concentration camp, received maternal approval and permission to marry daughter, Jadwiga. A Polish wedding was improvised. Accepted into the United States several years later, Jadwiga came with her husband and 3 children to Chicago where the large Polish community eased the cultural bridge. She and her husband developed a multi-unit room and board house which Jadwiga ran. She thriftily and efficiently managed several duplexes, first in Illinois and then Wisconsin. The family later farmed in Wood county (WI), then lived and worked in Milwaukee, before Jadwiga came to live her twilight years in Central Wisconsin. Jadwiga was devoted to her family. She baked bread and babka every other week. Her lightning-fast hands knitted many garments. Over the years, Jadwiga continued the homemaking ways she learned in Haly. This nurturing attitude was mother Jadwiga's special bequest to her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. Condolences may be sent online to www.rembsfh.com In lieu of flowers, memorials may be sent to Runkel Cemetery Association, 3082 Hwy 34, Junction City, WI 54443.