New details emerge about popular Polish man who died in Omagh

NEW details have emerged about the life of a Polish man who died in Omagh last week.

Tadeusz ‘Ted’ Lange, who lived alone at Holmview Avenue, died on May 26. As he had no family living locally, Ted’s friends organised a collection which raised more than £1,200 to pay for his funeral.

Little was known about Ted’s life before he came to live in Omagh.

However, a man who spoke at his funeral at Christ the King church on Saturday revealed more about his past.

The man spoke in Polish but the translation shows that he said Ted was born in the northern Polish city of Gdynia on June 7, 1955.

This means Ted would have celebrated his 70th this coming Saturday.

The man told Ted’s funeral that after leaving school, Ted attended the University of Gdańsk in Poland, before working for a period at the world-famous Gdańsk shipyard.

The yard gained international fame when Polish trade union Solidarity was founded there in 1980.

According to the man who spoke at his funeral, Ted was married twice and had three children.

In the 1990s, Ted went to Greece ‘to earn a living’, before travelling to Marseille in France where he lived for a period.

It is believed that he then set up home in Omagh, where he lived for ‘many years’, according to the priest who conducted his funeral service.

The man who spoke at the service said Ted often acted as an interpreter for people from Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia who could not speak English.

“He willingly translated whether at the Job Centre, in housing or at the doctor’s. He was helpful,” the man said.

He added that he wanted to speak on behalf of all the people who Ted had helped during his life in Omagh.

Despite being a private man, Ted was well-known and liked in Omagh and was a popular customer in a number of local bars.

After his death, and when it became clear that Ted had no family in the local area, a collection was started to pay for his funeral.

People donated around £1,200 to an online fundraising page, while collection boxes were also placed in Bogan’s Bar and McAleer’s Bar in Omagh, two of the pubs that Ted frequented.

Other Omagh pubs who helped out with the collection were Daly’s and Charlie’s.

Speaking at Ted’s funeral, Father Ignacy Saniuta, the Polish chaplain for the Derry Diocese, praised those who had organised and donated to the collection.

“Your kindness and care show that one doesn’t need a large family to be loved and remembered. May God bless you all,” said Fr Saniuta.

“Though he lived alone he does not leave this world alone. He is being remembered today by his friends and neighbours.

“Tadeusz’s death reminds us how fragile life is, but it also reminds us that every life is valuable, even if it is lived quietly, even if it ends without much notice.

“Ted had no close family here but he had friends, neighbours and people of goodwill who would not let him go without honour.

“This is a powerful testimony. A loving heart always finds the way to others.”

Fr Saniuta acknowledged little was known about Ted’s past.

“We don’t know everything about his story and his life. Perhaps he carried pain. Perhaps he struggled quietly, but today that no longer matters because God, who sees everything, looks not on the past but at the present, in the heart.”

Following the funeral service, Ted was buried in Greenhill Cemetery.

A reception was held afterwards in his honour at Bogan’s Bar.