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HELEN WEPRUK
Dec. 18, 1925-Sept. 4, 2019
With heavy hearts we announce our mother’s passing on the evening of Wednesday, Sept. 4, 2019. For ourselves alone we grieve because Mom is at last free of the pain that encompassed her final year on Earth.
When she and Dad bought the grocery store and billiard hall in Sundown, adding the café in the early 1950s, Mom’s naturally reserved personality adjusted to life in the public realm. Her physical and mental strength served her well - taking care of the business, tending a garden the size of a hockey rink and as a working member of the Sundown Ukrainian Catholic Women’s Association.
Mom found her “happy place” in the Sundown 4-H Club as a leader in the mid-50s to head leader until 1985. She had a creative bend that manifested itself in sewing, crocheting and quilting. We treasure her crocheting masterpieces produced before her hands could no longer work the hook and thread. A sample of her work hangs in the palliative sitting room at the Vita & District Health Centre. Plants were another source of pride, growing well with her “fool-proof fertilizer concoction”.
Mom enjoyed travelling and saw Canada from the Maritimes to Vancouver. She went on an Alaskan cruise with friend Marie, visited Hawaii and several other states and enjoyed local bus tours. She travelled to Ukraine on a tour in 2000 and in 2010.
A significant challenge at 90 years of age was her sudden total loss of hearing. Her foresight into a time of total silence had led her to enroll in computer courses and learn to type in her 70s. Her friend Evelyn taught her to use a smart phone and to text. With a large collection of bitmoji spicing up her texts, Mom was able to keep in touch with anyone having a cell phone or computer.
The last surviving sibling, Mom was predeceased by Dora, Frances, Lawrence, Cynthia, John, Mary, Peter and Sophie. She leaves behind to mourn her children, Pat (Marc), Jim (Denise) and Jackie (Rick); her grandchildren, Tamara Wiebe and Corey (Sonja) Wepruk, Laurier and Patrick (Natasha) Chabot, and her great-grandchildren (Micayla, Shayda, Jadyn, Ryleigh Wiebe). Her brothers and sisters-in-law Paul (Alice), Bill (Dorothy) and Stan (Elma) Wepruk and the many nieces, nephews and cousins will miss her, especially sister Frances’s children to whom she was much attached: Mary, Johnny, William (Heidi), Gary (Paulette) and Vickie (David).
We wish to thank Dr Karen Toews and Dr Olha Ulanovych as well as the nurses at Vita & District Health Centre who cared for Mom.
Special thanks to Mom’s friends, the best friends that anyone can hope to have: Evelyn Schellenberg (and her family), Bill and Marie Klassen.
A memorial service will be held on Saturday, Oct. 12, 2019 at 11 a.m. at the St Elias Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Sirko, MB, followed by a meal at the Sirko Hall.
According to Mom’s wishes, her ashes will be buried next to her parents’ graves.
In lieu of flowers please give a donation to your favourite charity.
Arrangements by Birchwood Funeral Chapel 1-204-346-1030 or 1-888-454-1030;
www.birchwoodfuneralchapel.com.
As published in The Carillon on Sep 18, 2019