Michelle, an only child, described her mother as Sylvia as “a true matriarch, whose nurturing spirit enveloped us all”, adding that she was “a source of wisdom, offering guidance and a listening ear to anyone in need”.
Her parents met in Budapest when Thomas was 21 and Sylvia was 16, marrying two years later in 1956. They fled for England soon after, escaping the Hungarian Uprising. “The Soviets marched into Budapest, taking everything, including the properties and pram factory owned by my father's family,” said Michelle.
The couple were together for 70 years (Photo: Handout)
Speaking at the funeral in Golders Green on Sunday, Michelle told mourners: “They undertook a perilous journey, escaping via Austria, with my mother having to sell a pair of diamond earrings during the journey to pay for food and essentials. They arrived in England with just the clothes on their backs.”
After starting their life in England in Southend, they later moved to London before settling in Radlett, Hertfordshire in 1978.
While they shared a love for culture and travel, they were “opposites”, said Michelle. “My mother [was] an optimist and my father, a pessimist, but together, they made a dynamic team […] Together, as one, they embodied the essence of enduring love to the end.”
Sylvia and Thomas’ grandsons, Max Ben-Nathan, 27, and his brother, Dan, 25, read out a joint eulogy at the funeral, saying that the “unique bond” they shared with their grandparents “only deepened with time”.
They recalled the Lego sets they were given by their grandma and “Tata” as young children, which “[ignited] a spark of creativity” and some 75 plants which their grandma kept in their home, “a testament to her deeply nurturing spirit”.
Describing the couple as “the strongest people we ever met”, the grandsons recounted how their grandparents had told them the story of their escape from Hungary, “navigating the treacherous landscape as gunshots echoed in the distance”. They said it was “sheer determination” that had enabled them to survive and finally find refuge in England.
Sylvia Bruck and her husband, Thomas in Hungary in the 1950s (Photo: Handout)
The brothers told family and friends that their grandparents had shared their love of culture and nature with them, frequently organising trips to museums and parks, “imparting not just a love for exploration but a deep appreciation for the world’s art, history and natural beauty”.
Thomas’ sister, Vivienne Muhlgay, from Finchley, recalled that her brother “Tomi” was a motorcycle enthusiast, and that while living in a sixth-floor apartment in Budapest as a teenager, “he dissembled his beloved motorbike every evening [and] put it in the lift to keep it in his bedroom overnight”.
She described her older brother as “my hero, […] who was stronger and much funnier than anyone else” and that “Tomi and Sylvie's love for each other, right up to the last day, was obvious to all who knew them”.
Detective Constable Felicity Moody of Hertfordshire Constabulary added: “Our thoughts remain with the family of Tom and Sylvia at this difficult time.”
