OLENA HRYN

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OLENA HRYN June 8, 1922 - March 4, 2018 It is with great sadness that we announce the death of our dear mother and grandmother, Olena (Lesia) Hryn. Born Olesia Peleshuk in the village of Podil in the southern Chernihiv region of Ukraine, as the daughter a schoolteacher mother and a newly ordained priest of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church father, she was destined to personally witness some of the century's most dramatic events before reaching Canada in 1948 at age 26: mass terror, the great famine (Holodomor), Soviet and Nazi occupation, war, refugee status, and finally permanent emigration from her homeland. She obtained her medical training both in Kyiv, Ukraine, and Göttingen University in Germany. In Canada (Toronto) she worked as a bacteriologist at Connaught Laboratories, Sick Children's and Sunnybrook hospitals, and at the University of Toronto School of Dentistry before leaving work to dedicate herself to raising her family. She was active in the life of the Ukrainian Canadian community: at St. Andrew's Ukrainian Orthodox Church, St. Vladimir's Institute, the Hryhorii Skovoroda Upper Classes in Ukrainian Studies. In 1990, together with her husband of many years Nicholas (Mykola) Hryn, she moved to Winnipeg, where she took up the post of editor of the journal Promin, the official publication of the Ukrainian Women's Association of Canada. After retiring in 1997 at age 75, she divided her time between Winnipeg and North Port, Florida. Predeceased by her parents Fr. Yuriy and Anna Peleshuk, and her husband Nicholas, she leaves in great sorrow her daughters Halyna and Mariika, her son John and his wife Megan Schagrin, grandsons Alexander and David, stepgrandson James, niece Olena Vecherya and family, and relatives and friends in North America and Ukraine. We will sorely miss her intelligence, caustic wit, adventurous spirit, courage, and mostly her extraordinary capacity for love and sacrifice to her family and to her country. Eternal memory, Vichnaya Pamyat! Funeral services were held in Toronto at the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of St. Andrew on March 10, with interment at Prospect Cemetery. A memorial service will be held in Winnipeg at Holy Trinity Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral, 1175 Main Street, on Sunday, April 15, after the Divine Liturgy.

As published in Winnipeg Free Press on Mar 17, 2018