Alicja Kapuścińska has died. She was a paediatrician and the wife of the world’s most celebrated Polish reporter. “For the past few hours she is already once more at the side of her beloved Ryszard,” said Marian Sewerski, president of the Czytelnik publishing house, in his farewell.

Alicja Kapuścińska was born on 4 March 1933. On the same day, a year earlier, her future husband Ryszard Kapuściński was born.

They met as history students at the University of Warsaw. Though Alicja Kapuścińska had wanted to study medicine after her school-leaving exams, those times were not conducive to individual choices. She was assigned to teacher training, from which she chose history. She moved fairly quickly from there to medicine at the Warsaw Medical Academy, where her speciality was paediatrics. She worked at the Medical Academy’s Children’s Clinic on Działowska Street, where she also completed her doctorate and worked until retirement.

In 1952 she married Ryszard Kapuściński. The following year their daughter was born; she now lives in Canada.

From the late 1980s the Kapuścińskis lived in the Kolonia Staszica estate, a pre-war villa district adjacent to Pole Mokotowskie park.

In recent years Alicja Kapuścińska had been troubled by health problems. “I have to take care of myself, I can no longer afford to be active. I could not even attend the ceremony for the Ryszard Kapuściński Award for the best reportage book of the year! After the gala the city authorities invited me to dinner, and I did not go because I was not up to it. I suffered afterwards from the health resort at Ciechocinek, then my heart played up, problems with high blood pressure. I thought: time to look after myself. I am doing everything to keep my health in check, I am slowing down” — she said in Agnieszka Nabrdalik’s book Today We Are Talking About You, published in 2017.

At the end of February, when we were recording the podcast Warsaw Transmits prepared to mark the 90th anniversary of Ryszard Kapuściński’s birth, we could not enter the writer’s studio because of COVID restrictions. Alicja Kapuścińska waved to us from the balcony, and since her birthday was approaching, we sent up a bouquet of flowers through her carer.

Alicja Kapuścińska died on Monday morning. She was 89. The news of her death was conveyed by Czytelnik president Marian Sewerski.

“Dear Friends, Filled with grief, I inform you that last night Alicja Kapuścińska passed away. She was good and beloved; may she rest in peace. For the past few hours she is already once more at the side of her beloved Ryszard. This is very sad news for all of us. Alicja will always remain in our hearts and warm memories. She will always be with us; we will never forget her,” he wrote.

Source: Gazeta Wyborcza Warszawa

source: kapuscinski.info