Mina (Emilia) Gębicka
Henryk Goldszmit’s grandmother
The daughter of Szymon Deitszer and Cyrla née Wolf, born on 10 December 1831 in Kalisz; died on 23 March 1892 in Warsaw.
On 11 January 1853, she married Józef Adolf Gębicki in Kalisz. In December, their first daughter, Cecylia, was born. One year later, their son, Karol, was born, and in 1862, one more daughter who, unfortunately, died at birth. In 1874, after Cecylia married Józef Goldszmit, the whole family moved to Warsaw. Mina’s husband was already seriously ill. He died soon afterwards, in 1877, and the widow moved in with her daughter. Henryk Goldszmit mentions Mina in his Pamiętnik (The Diary) as the one who called him a philosopher and who was the only one “to believe in his lucky star.” In his teenage diary Spowiedź motyla (The Confession of a Butterfly), he calls her his “Dearest Granny.”
In her birth and marriage certificates as well as in the death certificate of her mother, Cyrla Deitszer, she is called “Mina,” but in her children’s birth certificates (the children were registered by their father), she is called “Emilia.” This is also the name that appears on the Gębickis’ tombstone, located at the Jewish Cemetery in Warsaw (plot No. 20, alley No. 11). In her obituary, published in Izraelita (1892, No. 14), we can read as follows:
The deceased was known for the kindness of her heart, the goodness of her character and her deep religiousness. She was a quiet woman but also a paragon of important domestic virtues. She always looked at the bright side of the world.
Gentle, obliging, noble, forgiving towards others and demanding towards herself, she was glad to help others.
As a daughter, a wife and a mother, she was fully dedicated to performing her duties, often giving up on herself.
Emilia Gębicka, of blessed memory, left us in deep sorrow, the proof of which was a large funeral cortege that led her to her final resting place.