Online Obituaries

Dolores Jane Wegrzyn, 89, passed away on May 22 in Wells, Maine after an almost decade long journey with Alzheimer’s. On April Fools Day in 1935, Frank and Stella Hajec welcomed their eighth child, Dolores Jane, into the world. Dolores, nicknamed “Dolly,” grew up with two brothers and five sisters on Chestnut Street in Chicopee and attended local schools.  In her teens Dolly worked on local tobacco farms. After high school in 1953 she began her career as an inspector at Eastern Etching in Chicopee. On May 21, 1955 Dolly married her childhood sweetheart Theodore “Ted” Wegrzyn at St. Stanislaus church after his return from the Korean War. The couple went to Miami Beach for their honeymoon. Then Dolly and Ted bought a house in Chicopee where they resided for 61 years.

Dolly gave birth to her and Ted’s only child, Diane Marie, in August 1962. At that time Dolly left work to raise her daughter and help care for her own mother who had suffered a stroke. In 1978 Dolly took a job with the U.S. Postal Service at the facility in Springfield. In 1983 she returned to her first employer, Eastern Etching, where she retired from in 2000 after a total of 25 years there. In October 1987 Dolly gained a son-in-law when her daughter was married in the same church as her parents. Dolly and Ted spent their retirement years gardening, traveling around New England to favorite spots in the Berkshires and Vermont, and vacationing every summer at their daughter’s house on Square Pond in Shapleigh, Maine. Dolly loved her family, her hometown of Chicopee where she lived for 82 years, walks in nature, music, making people smile and anything chocolate.

Dolly leaves behind daughter Diane and her husband Vincent Srebnick of Kennebunk, Maine, plus many nieces and nephews. She is pre-deceased by all her siblings and her husband of 61 years Theodore. After her husband’s passing in 2017, Dolly relocated to Avita of Wells in Wells, Maine to be nearer to her daughter. A special thank you to the staff at Avita of Wells for their kind and compassionate care given to Dolly the past seven years, and to Gentiva Hospice for their support in her final months. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in remembrance of Dolores to the Alzheimer’s Association, alz.org. Visitation will be held on Tuesday, June 18 at the Cierpial Memorial Funeral Home on 61 Grape St. in Chicopee from 12 to 1 pm, followed by her burial in the Massachusetts Veterans Memorial Cemetery, 1390 Main St. in Agawam at 2 pm.