This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/an/lRC.2ACE/945.1.1.1.2.2 Message Board Post: An El Paso, Texas resident recently deceased may be of interest to all of you with a link to Stavnicky genealogy: http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_3839357 (Visit the elpasotimes website for archived articles featuring the widow over the years--she was "well-known" in our part of town--but few really knew her. "Long-devoted widow still awaits burial By Ramon Bracamontes / El Paso Times It is an incredible love story with an incredibly sad ending. It endured hardships, loneliness and now unforeseen abandonment. Throughout the Hayes neighborhood near Dyer Street and Fred Wilson Avenue, everyone knew Veronica Jarosz because they saw her walking daily. Yet no one really knew her, or of her devotion to her late husband, Peter Jarosz. Since 1991, no matter what, Veronica walked the two miles from her home near Travis Elementary School to the Fort Bliss National Cemetery to have lunch beside her deceased husband. Along the way she greeted folks, but she didn't stop to talk. Then, earlier this year, her walks stopped. Veronica died of natural causes March 23, alone in her home, police said. Today, her body remains at the El Paso County Morgue because no family members can be found. No funeral arrangements can be made by anyone until all attempts to find a relative have been exhausted, and the Jaroszes didn't make prearrangements. If family isn't found, Veronica's case will be referred to Probate Court so that a lawyer can take care of the services and settle her estate. "Pobrecita, she was a good person," said neighbor Valentín Rodriguez, 84, "We haven't seen her. Probably no one here knows what happened to her." People living and working around her neighborhood said they hadn't seen her in a while. They weren't sure how long it had been. And, as Rodriguez said, they didn't know whom to ask about her. "She kept to herself," said Rodriguez, a neighbor since 1970. "Sometimes she walked down the street, sometimes through the alley. But always, you saw her, with her hat on." Rodriguez didn't know much about Veronica, but he knew her husband, the late Peter Jarosz, a World War II veteran who died in 1991. It was Peter whom Veronica chose to honor every day by going to visit him at the cemetery. She took him fresh flowers. At the cemetery, Veronica often talked to other mourners, employees and reporters, all of whom wondered why she was there without fail. She told them that Peter Jarosz was the only family she had and that she was the only family he had. That her maiden name was Veronica Stavnicki and that she lived a harsh life as an orphan in Poland. She told them that she came to New York in 1958 and a newspaper wrote about her plight. That's how El Pasoan Peter Jarosz, also of Polish descent, found her. From his home in Central El Paso, he sent her letters, then money, then a plea to have mercy on him and come marry him. Alone, she moved to El Paso in August 1958. He rented her a room until they married in September. Since then, she devoted her life to him, said Kelly McEntire, a Las Cruces resident who works in El Paso. He is one of the few people Veronica let into her life. He offered her a ride about a year ago after seeing her every day. She accepted. "She was exceptional. Her story is exceptional," McEntire said. "When I found what she had been doing, and for how long, walking every day in the heat in the summer and in the cold in the winter, I decided to help her. "Her commitment to her husband is incredible. She said he gave her everything, when she had nothing. After he died, she wanted to honor him." It was McEntire, who after not seeing Jarosz for two days, called the police to check on her. She was found dead inside her home, alone, still wearing that same straw hat. Jose Iniguez, an employee at the Earl Scheib Paint & Body shop, which is down the street from the Jarosz home, was awed by Jarosz and her devotion. "You'd always see her, always walking. She was something," Iniguez said. His co-worker, Ray Juarez, talked to her once. Jarosz had a letter from the city saying that her husband's old pickup was a junked vehicle. She didn't know what to do, so she showed the letter to the body shop employees, who covered the truck up with a tarp. The city stopped sending her junked-car letters. "You would see her walking every day," Juarez said. "Whether it was raining, windy, lightning. It didn't matter, she would go." Fort Bliss National Cemetery employees didn't want to talk about Jarosz other than to say that she was one of a handful of survivors who visit the cemetery regularly. They, too, said Jarosz pretty much kept to herself. In El Paso, about three people a month end up at the El Paso County Morgue because family cannot be found. If no one is found, the person's file is sent to the El Paso County General Assistance office, which handles funerals for people deemed paupers. In fiscal year 2005, 191 people were classified as paupers, and the county paid to cremate them or bury them at the county cemetery in Horizon City. The cases of those who are not classified as paupers go to Probate Court. Tony Natera, executive director of the General Assistance office, said Jarosz will not be buried a pauper because she and her husband had assets. "She will probably be buried at Fort Bliss," Natera said. With any hope, it will be near her husband." Ramon Bracamontes may be reached at [email protected]; 546-6142