Stepek family hit by second tragedy

Nov 22 2012 by John Rowbotham, Hamilton Advertiser

One of Hamilton’s best-known families hit by a second death in three weeks.

Teresa Stepek, wife of former Hamilton Accies’ chairman Jan Stepek, died early Sunday – 22 days after he passed away.

Mrs Stepek, who was 84 and had terminal cancer, suffered a massive stroke four days after Mr Stepek’s funeral and died at their home in Hamilton.

Her funeral takes place on Saturday, 9.30am, at St Mary’s Church, Cadzow Street, Hamilton, followed by burial beside her husband of 63 years, at the town’s Bent Cemetery.

The couple’s son Martin said: “Mum had been ill since February/March time and had gone through a lot of suffering and pain . She always said she wanted dad to go first so he would not grieve for her, and although dad’s death was not unexpected, it knocked the stuffing and the fight out of her.

“She suffered a stroke shortly after the funeral and had been treated in hospital but she was at home in Hamilton when she died.”

Mr Stepek, who was 90 when he died on October 26, was born in what was then Poland but is now Western Ukraine.

He settled in Scotland after surviving World War Two, when he was exiled to Siberia and fought with the Polish Navy.

He met Cambuslang-born Teresa Murphy in 1947 at a dance hall, after they were introduced by mutual friends and they married two years later.

They moved to a `room and kitchen’ in Cambuslang and a short time later founded the electrical businesses which over the next 40 years expanded into areas such as travel, furniture and carpets and employed a workforce of 300.

Martin Stepek said after more than 60 years’ marriage the couple were “life partners”. He added: “In some ways it is a blessing although a very mixed one. They thought as one unit and without the other, it would not have been the same for either of them.”