Irena Stanislawa Galajda, who came to Massachusetts from Poland in her fifties, taught herself enough English to pass her citizenship test in it, and spent the next two decades feeding a large family in Chelsea, died on September 10, 2026 at the Highland Park Rehab and Healthcare Center in Chelsea. She was 85.
She was born Irena Wilk on September 29, 1940 in Majdan Krolewski, a village in southeastern Poland, one of three children of Bronislaw and Zofia Wilk. She married Michal Galajda, and they were together 63 years, raising a son, Derek, and a daughter, Anna.
The couple emigrated in the 1990s and settled first in Revere, near their son and grandchildren. Mrs. Galajda studied for the naturalization examination in English rather than in translation and became a citizen in 1998. She found work as a clerk in a clothing boutique at the Prudential Center in Boston and stayed until she retired in 2005. She and her husband spent two years back in Poland after that, then returned and made a home in Chelsea, where she lived for 19 years.
She was a parishioner of the former St. Stanislaus Church in Chelsea. Her family remembers her Polish cooking and the pastries she made for holidays, and a curiosity that did not slow down: hard crossword puzzles, new devices she insisted on learning, and travel across the United States and to Hawaii. Her husband died in 2025.
She leaves her son, Derek Galajda, and his wife Barbara of Peabody; her daughter, Anna Fila of Warsaw; four grandchildren, Daniel Galajda, Greg Galajda, Isabella Sudol and Karolina Fila; three great-grandchildren, Jan, Cecilia and Julian Sudol; her sister, Stanislawa Miernik of Warsaw; and many nieces and nephews. Her brother, Ryszard Wilk, died before her.
Visiting hours are Friday, September 18, from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Welsh Funeral Home, 718 Broadway, Chelsea. The funeral is Saturday, September 19, at 8:30 a.m. from the funeral home, followed by a Funeral Mass at 10 a.m. at Saints Joseph and Lazarus Church, 59 Ashley Street, East Boston. Burial is at Puritan Lawn Memorial Park in Peabody. Her family thanked the staff at Highland Park Rehab and Healthcare Center for her care.
Compiled from information published by Welsh Funeral Home, 718 Broadway, Chelsea, (617) 889-2723. Photograph courtesy of the family via Welsh Funeral Home. This is our own summary, not the family’s obituary; read the full obituary and leave a condolence at the funeral home’s page. Corrections: we will fix any error promptly.