COMMENT: They don’t make them like him now (From Oxford Mail)
Get involved: send your photos, videos, news & views by texting OXFORD NEWS to 80360 or email us
COMMENT: They don’t make them like him now
9:30am Friday 20th April 2012 in Editorial Comment
KAZIMIERZ Michalski experienced more of life than most – and that was nothing to do with his impressive old age.
Mr Michalski fought during the Second World War and was a survivor of the Russian Gulags.
It was this fighting spirit which then led him to fend off a thief in his Thorncliffe Road home at the age of 101.
The 5ft-tall yob had claimed he could fix the leaking roof on Mr Michalski’s house.
But once inside the pensioner’s North Oxford home, he snatched Mr Michalski’s wallet from his jacket.
After grabbing him, Mr Michalski wrestled him at the top of a flight of stairs.
The criminal broke free and ran off with the wallet, which contained £400.
Jailing him for three years, a judge said the criminal had “bitten off more than he could chew” when he picked on Mr Michalski.
Today we learn 104-year-old Mr Michalski died during a visit to his home country of Poland.
They just don’t make them like Mr Michalski any more.
His loss is not just to Oxford but to a generation of heroes.
