(New York, October 24, 2002) Alina Pienkowska, one of the legends of the Gdansk Shipyard and of the "heroic" period of Solidarity, died on Thursday in Gdansk, of cancer, at the age of 50. She was the diminutive shipyard nurse who single-handedly prevented the August 1980 strike from ending after two days, after the most basic economic demands of the shipyard were met.
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She was then among the authors of the famous 21 demands of the August 1980 strike. At the time of the August 1980 strikes, she was a single mother (a widow), a shipyard nurse, and one of the founders of the underground free trade unions of the Baltic Coast in the 1970s, a group that included Lech Walesa, as well as her husband to be, Bogdan Borusewicz, another Solidarity legend.
Bogdan spent five years in hiding after martial law was declared, during which time he clandestinely married Alina. The baptism of their daughter was one of the peak moments of the underground life: Bogdan, still in hiding, attended it disguised as a woman and Lech Walesa not only did not recognize him, but as any good Polish male would, kissed his (her) hand. Or perhaps he was just being clever.
Alina stayed on in the shipyard as a nurse until the early 1990s, then spent one term as a senator, and then returned to Gdansk and was active in local politics and in health issues until the end of her life. She left her husband, Bogdan Borusewicz, and two children, Sebastian and Kinga.
