2026 Week 8: A Big Decision #52Ancestorsin52Weeks

Two of my husband Martin's aunts, one on each side of his family, had to make decisions which would transform their lives in one way or another.

Orphaned in WW2 after losing her mother to starvation on the way from a labour camp in the Soviet Union to freedom in Persia, fifteen year old Maria Danuta (Danka) Stepek was transferred to Palestine. At the and of the war she was happy to stay in Palestine, but when the Arab-Israeli War broke out in 1948, all Polish citizens were evacuated to England. There she became friendly with an older couple, both lawyers, who had no children of their own. They suggested to her that they would adopt her formally and she could emigrate with them to the USA. Danka deeply appreciated the offer as she was very close to the couple, but made the decision to stay in Britain, where her brother and her sister now also lived.

Danka (on the left) in 1947 alongside Martin's mum, Teresa Murphy.

A decade later, another of Martin's aunts, this time on his mother's side, also received an offer to go to the USA. Frances Murphy had obtained a degree at Glasgow University and was a teacher in Scotland in the mid to late 1940s. She had also trained in Montessori education. At that time, her brother Michael received a letter from the USA from a Catholic priest, Father John Raycroft. He explained that he was a relative and wanted to reconnect with his Scottish-Irish family. Frances became involved in the correspondence, and, on learning that Frances taught in the Montessori methods, he invited Frances to come to America and work in a school which he was connected to. Unlike Danka, Frances ultimately decided to emigrate to the USA.

Frances Murphy graduation photo

Both women had long successful lives, Danka living to the age of 92 and Frances to 100. Who knows what their lives might have been like had they made a different decision?

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