Obituary of Maria Filarski

Maria Stachurska Filarski

May 19, 1930 - March 24, 2026

With her devoted son by her side, Maria died peacefully at the age of 95, on March 24, 2026. Marysia was born on May 19, 1930 in Kowel, in the Wolyn region of Poland, to Janina (née Feranska) and Stanislaw Stachurski, a prosecutor with the District Court in Lutsk. Her beloved brother, Andrzej, was older by three years. Marysia was 9 when the Nazis started the war, and after the Russians joined, the Stachurski family was forced to flee west to Lublin, in German-occupied Poland. Immediately when the war ended, the family moved to Gdansk, where Stanislaw served as a judge for the prosecution of German war criminals. (He, in fact, prosecuted the commanders of the concentration camp at Stutthof, where Marysia’s future husband’s father was murdered.)

Marysia was born overflowing with artistic talent and a passion to constantly create, matched only by her impulse to share it with others throughout her life. She attended a fine arts high school in Sopot. In 1957, she began studies at the Academy of Fine Arts, in Warsaw, in the studio of Professor Marian Wnuk. A year later she won a competition and received a six-month scholarship to travel to Milan, Italy, where she studied with the esteemed sculptor, Marino Marini. Maria often spoke of her time in Italy, where she happily absorbed its rich culture and the great art of the past. Shortly after returning to Poland in 1962, she came to Windsor, where she married Stanislaw Filarski. In 1963 their son, Andrew, was born.

In Windsor Maria became highly involved in the Polish community and local Polish parish. What follows here is only a sample of her life-long activity: She often lent her works to Holy Trinity Church for display during Holy Week, and in the 1970s and 80s, she helped organize art exhibitions for the city’s summer Ethnic Festivals, with a focus on promoting Polish culture and art. On the occasion of their 100th anniversary, the Polish community in Windsor honoured her with a medal. Maria also taught sculpture with the Windsor Board of Education and at St. Clair Community College. Holy Trinity Church, in Windsor, displays Maria’s large bas-relief of St. John Paul II, while other works can be found in the Windsor, Sarnia, and Detroit areas. With her unstoppable creative impulse, Maria worked in all kinds of media. As we go through her things, we are constantly rediscovering and unearthing examples of her astonishing decorations, paintings, and drawings.

A woman of profound faith and natural kindness, Maria also worked as a volunteer at the Windsor-Essex hospice and with the Windsor-Essex Children’s Aid Society. All who knew her will always remember her deep intelligence and sense of fun and humour. She will also be remembered for her impressive fortitude: it sustained her through the upheavals of her childhood, gave her the physical and mental strength required for sculpting, and saw her through her fight against and survival of cancer, twice.

Maria was pre-deceased by her loving husband, Stanislaw, and is grieved by her beloved son, Andrew, her daughter-in-law Bernice (Iarocci), and granddaughter, Gina, as well as family and cherished friends in Canada and Poland. The family would like to extend special thanks to those who were such good company to Maria in her later years - her much-loved friend, Stephen, as well as Jadwiga, Monique, and Monda who were all both devoted carers and dear friends. We are also deeply grateful to the skilled and unfailingly kind staff at both Sunrise of Windsor and Windsor Metropolitan Hospital.

Visitation will be held at Windsor Chapel Funeral Home (CENTRAL) 1700 Tecumseh Road E. (519-253-7234) on Sunday March 29th, 2026, from 2pm-5pm and 7pm-9pm. A funeral mass will be held on March 30, at 10am at Holy Trinity Church 1035 Ellis Street East, Windsor, followed by burial at Heavenly Rest Catholic Cemetery.

If you wish to honour Maria, the family requests, in lieu of flowers, donations to The Monsignor L.A. Wnuk Scholarship, Assumption University (registrar@assumptionu.ca mailto:registrar@assumptionu.ca), Street Help Windsor (964 Wyandotte St. East, Windsor, ON https://www.street-help.com/), or a charity of your choice. Online condolences and memories may be shared with the family at www.windsorchapel.com