Online Obituaries

Jean (Pokora) Folta, was called to heaven on Monday December 27, 2021. Jean was born on August 7, 1931 in Bieliny, Poland, and was the daughter of the late Jan and Aniela (Hasiak) Pokora.
During WWII, Jean and her family were deported to a forced labor camp in Siberia, USSR. In 1942 Great Britain organized their release and relocation. Her family traveled across the Soviet Union to Iran, through Baghdad in Iraq, then to Ain Karem in Palestine where Jean and her sister Loretta went to school. In 1947 Jean and her family relocated to England where she attended school from 1947 to 1950 in Stowell Park in Cheltenham, England.
In 1950 Jean and her family immigrated to the United States, settling in Chicopee, MA. where she lived for 71 years.
On June 19, 1954, Jean married Walter Folta who endured a nearly identical journey as Jean, yet they never met until coming to Chicopee.
Jean was a hat maker at Winfield Hat Shop in Holyoke. She was a receptionist at Holyoke Hospital and then a house mother for the nursing students when the hospital school was still open. She then worked in the hospital coffee shop until she retired. Jean also delivered newspapers in Chicopee for many years.
Jean was proud to be Polish and to be a Roman Catholic; she was a communicant of St Anthony of Padua Church for many years, and then later in life she regularly attended St. Rose De Lima in Chicopee. Jean enjoyed lunch with her friends at Lambert Lavoie School and River Mills senior Center. She also enjoyed being with her family, her cats, and spending many winters with her granddaughter and great granddaughters in Houston. And she enjoyed traveling. Places where Jean visited included the Grand Canyon, Nevada, Utah, California, Mississippi, Florida, New York, and Pennsylvania. She also took many trips to Vancouver and Montreal Canada.
Jean is predeceased by her husband Walter who died on March 27, 2005; her brother Stanley Pokora who passed away as an infant in Siberia; her brother Edward Pokora who passed away in 2010; and her sister and best friend, Loretta Kos, who passed away in 2000.
She is survived by her three children; Joseph W. Folta and his wife Melissa, Peter J. Folta and his partner Pat Rondinone, Lucy J. Folta and her husband Michael McLain, her seven grandchildren; John Folta, Laura Gheen and her husband Kyle, David Folta, Melissa Melloni, Raymond McLain and his fiancé Danielle Bordeau, Audrey Millican and her husband Eli, Alexander McLain and his fiancé Alexandra Holloway; and her seven great grandchildren: Emelia Folta, Jude Folta, Alexandria Belhumeur, Chloe Belhumeur, Samantha Gordon, Ashlyn Millican and Summer Millican.
The funeral mass will be Tuesday, Jan 4th at 11:00AM at St. Anthony of Padua Church with burial at St. Stanislaus cemetery in Chicopee. Arrangements are entrusted to Cierpial Memorial Funeral Home. Memorial contributions may be made to Care.org and St. Anthony of Padua Church, 56 St. Anthony St., Chicopee, MA 01013.