My brother Mark and I were in the room with Baba at the very moment that she passed away. She was in the process of dying from old age and advanced dementia for the past few months.
The following is the obituary that will appear in tomorrow's paper. It is the product of many minds--I typed it up, but just about everyone in our family has had their input into it:
Iwaskewycz, Maria (maiden name Chovhana), age 87, passed away 2/7/08. She is preceded in her death by her husband Mykhajlo (“Mike”), daughter Katya, and in Ukraine by her parents and 4 siblings. She is survived by her children Ivanna Rebet (husband Andrij), Robert (wife Lydia) and Leo (wife Chris), her grandchildren (Taras, Stefan, Mark, Michael, Lana and Katya), her great-granddaughter (Julija), her brother Evhen (wife Zhdana) and his family, and in Ukraine by her sister Slavka (husband Ivan) and other family. Maria was, and her family will be, ever grateful for the opportunities provided by life in America after WWII. In the U.S., Maria and her husband were able to continue in the struggle for a free and independent Ukraine while free to live, make a good living, and raise a family without the political persecution they had known in their homeland. With her husband Mykhajlo and other community members Maria was co-founder of the Ukrainian American Community Center of Minneapolis and was a lifelong member of St. Constantine’s Ukrainian Catholic Church, where she was active in parish life. Also with her husband, Maria funded a variety of Ukrainian organizations--including the Ukrainian Free University in Munich--and after Ukrainian independence, funded construction of three churches in Ukraine. MARIA HAD A PASSION FOR FLOWER GARDENING and in her final days rediscovered a youthful love for singing Ukrainian folk songs. The family wishes to thank all of our mother’s friends who visited and helped during her illness, with special thanks to Mrs. Olha Lytvyn and to her nurse, Lucille. Memorials preferred to St. Constantine’s Church.There is so much that I really want to say, but little I feel able to, for now. For now. More later.
For now, here is a link to a YouTube video of a Ukrainian-Canadian woman singing Vichnaja Pamjat (they, for some reason, disabled the "embed video" function, so this only just a link): here.
4 comments:
Vichnaja Pamjat. My paternal grandmother was named Marija, too. She passed away in May 1990, at the age of 71.
Thanks, Taras, for the condolence.
An anecdote relating to the name Marija: My father, as it turns out, was born in a manger to a mother whose name was Marija and to a father who was carpenter. Only because of this, wouldI dare say that it is too bad that Dido's name wasn't Josyp (there are obvious reasons why a nationalist Ukrainian might prefer not to be thusly named!). . .
Seriously, my father was born in November of 1944 outside of Presov in Slovakia in a manger, while the family was trapped between the retreating German army and the advancing Red Army. . .
We joke--oh lord, so blasphemously!--that Tato is thus the second coming, and that's why everything in the world is going to pot (but at what stage in history has everything not always-already been going to pot?). . .
Stefan
Stefan, I am very sorry for your loss. Not a lot of what anyone says can or will help. I know the pain that I felt when I lost mine. My heart hurts for you and your family.
That’s quite a bit of consistent family record! It shows that manger-born folks run in your family!
We have something in common. Our tatos are both war kids. Mine was born in Korets, Ukraine, in the first days of the German occupation (August 1941). His brother was born in the Korets castle underground in January 1943, as the retreating Germans bombed the area.
Those days were a lot more apocalyptic, I guess. With all the mess we have in Ukraine today, I can’t imagine what it was like to be born during the war.
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