Janina Smagala Bobela, age 93 of Trumbull, beloved wife of the late Antoni Bobela passed away peacefully on November 27, 2020 in the comfort of her home. She was born on June 5, 1927 in the village of Malinowka, Skalat, Tarnopol, Poland. She was a stoic survivor of WWII. In June of 1940, upon turning the tender age of 13, she and her family were deported by gunpoint to Siberia to work in a forced labor camp (gulag) logging wood. She traveled to Siberia in a crammed cattle car for approximately three weeks. Starvation and hardship were common where winters could reach minus 45 degrees. She was released in September 1941 because of the Soviet declaration of amnesty. With the family farm confiscated and exiled from her homeland, she traveled with other war refugees through Tashkent, Bukhara, Pahlavi, Tehran and Karachi. In 1943, she arrived at a camp settlement with her family and other refugees in Koja, Uganda, Africa where she lived for five years. Thereafter, she sailed to England where she married in 1949. In 1951, she came to the United States and subsequentially became a citizen. Settling in Bridgeport, before moving to Trumbull she was a homemaker in addition to working in several factories.

Janina leaves behind her four children; George Bobela and his wife Hilda, Christine D’Amato, Edward Bobela and his wife Debbie, Irene and her husband Patrick Lombard, nine grandchildren; Jerry, Dawn, Diana, Frank, Erica, Sara, Heather, Jason and Laura, five great grandchildren, sister-in-law Jean Smagala, several nieces and nephews. She was predeceased by her brothers Stanley and Ted Smagala.

Funeral services will take place on Wednesday December 2, 2020 at 11am in the Commerce Hill Radozycki Funeral Home, 4798 Main St Bridgeport followed by Interment in Mountain Grove Cemetery, Easton. Calling hours will be held Wednesday morning from 10am until the time of the service in the funeral home. In lieu of flowers donations may be made to CT Hospice, Branford, CT in memory of Janina. For online condolences, memorial tributes and to make a donation visit us at commercehillfh.com