Rosalia Sedich
Born Ruslana Alexandravna Kornejewa December 24, 1927, in Ukraine to Teofilia and Alexander Kornejewa, died peacefully July 16, 2025 at Saint Vincent’s Hospital in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
She will be immensely missed. The love she showed, the sacrifices she made, the ethics of life and need for hard work and education to succeed in life that she instilled in those close to her will forever be remembered and cherished.
During WWII as a teenager, she escaped from the Communist Russian army that was advancing on the region she lived in with her mother and father. The region was heavily occupied by the German forces. The Russian army was executing everyone in their path. Stalin ordered his army to devastate the entire region without any consideration to Ukrainian civilians, whom Stalin assumed were traitors, since they were working alongside the German Nazi’s who had occupied the region earlier in the war.
With great luck, she and her family fled Ukraine by train to Regensburg Germany. Now she and her family were considered displaced people without a country.
In Germany, she worked at an airplane, factory until it was heavily bombarded by Americans. The area was destroyed as she hid with her parents during the devastating bombing. She was ordered to another factory until the war’s end.
After the war, Stalin demanded all displaced persons in Germany to be returned to Russia and face treason charges. This was a certainty of death, or incarceration in Siberian salt mines. Since she and her family were in displaced status without citizenship to any country, and being held in special American camps set-up to house the displaced population which consisted of Russians, Italians and others.
The American government unfortunately agreed to Stalin’s demands. With great fortune an American soldier, a guard, of Italian descent, warned her that trucks would pick up displaced people that night to be taken back to Russia. The family now left the camp just in time and evaded being sent to certain death.
Later, in Germany she met and married Vasily Sedich, who was held in a German prisoner camp until it was liberated after the war by American troops. He was captured after his fighter plane was shot down by the Germans. After release he changed his name so he wouldn’t be ordered to return to Russia. Her father died in Germany and her mother fortunately went on to live many years. She also gave birth to her first child in Germany.
Attempts to obtain passports to the United States were denied due to so many displaced persons requesting passports and the strict limits imposed for immigrants by the United States. Instead, the family received passports to Venezuela and immigrated to Caracas. Her second son was born in Venezuela. She worked as a waitress and her husband worked as a mechanic in a hospital.
The family finally immigrated to the United States early in 1955. She and her family arrived in New York and settled in Bridgeport, CT. Unfortunately, she became a widow on November 22, 1955. Her husband died of leukemia. She did an excellent job of keeping the family together, two sons and her mother. She later became a naturalized citizen and her name was Americanized to Rosalia Sedich. Interestingly, Rosalia, was the name her Polish grandparents, on her mother’s side, called her when she visited as a young child.
She worked at Warner’s many years sewing garments. After, she worked at Bassick Company for many years in various administrative office type jobs until her retirement.
She devoted much of her time before and after retiring to helping out her church’s operations by cooking, cleaning and doing administrative functions. She was always available to the family and observed holidays with her family. She greatly enjoyed playing slots and other games of chance in Las Vegas, Atlantic City and at Connecticut casinos.
She leaves behind two sons, Jerry Sedich from Shelton and Alexander Sedich from Milford; three grandsons, Nicholas Sedich from Shelton, Jonathan Sedich from Milford, and David Sedich from Kansas.; two daughters in law, Diane Sedich from Shelton and Cheryl Sedich from Milford; a granddaughter, Angeline Ballaro from Bethany and four great grandchildren, Megan and Kaitlynn Sedich from Kansas and Brooke and Blake Ballaro from Bethany.
Friends and family are invited to attend services for Rosalia officiated by Archpriest Constantine Semyanko, beginning Sunday evening, July 20, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. in the Presentation of Christ Church, 5 Wheeler Terrace, Stratford, Connecticut, 06614, and again from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. Monday in the church, This will be followed by a Funeral Mass at 10:00 a.m. and burial in Lakeview Cemetery.
For additional information or to share a message of condolence, please visit www.wrmcdonaldfuneralhome.com.