oral histories

Tell us about your childhood in Richmond.

We had a large backyard. So there were always picnics in the yard. There weren’t many houses along Francis Road. I played with four other kids along there. We played and that was it. There were ditches on Francis Road and in the summertime, we played something called “ditch tag.” The water dried up, so you’d just jump back and forth, back and forth, and try to catch each other and it was fun. They were small ditches so you’re okay with that. The larger ones like on Number Two Road and Three, you didn’t go in there, but the smaller ditches that now have become paved over, you played in them because it was fun. I have pleasant memories of growing up. Halloween was kind of a bust, because you have to go really far to get anything. That was the hard part. Other than that, it was good times.

Were you involved in the Ukrainian community?

I was a rotten kid so they sent me to Ukrainian school. I didn’t want to go, so I cannot read it. I can understand the Canadian version of Ukrainian, but the Ukrainian that I hear from people talking in Ukrainian, not really.

How did get your start in your career?

I graduated high school and ended up as a telephone operator at BC Tel, which is now Telus. They would phone whatever the line was for information and you would talk to people from all over the place.

Then they were looking for somebody to train for this very specific lab job that’s called cytology, the study of cells. In this case, to diagnose for cancer pathways. I went in for an interview. On my way to BC Tel, I put in my resignation and I started the job a week later. That was in the end of March 1966, and stayed there for forty-five and a half years.

What did you grow in your yard?

There were walnut trees, many different apple trees, cherries. You had the berries and you just grew everything. During the war years, they had to give up certain portions of the ration because we had our own. They had their own cows. You had your own milk. You make your own cheese. You had your own butter. You had your own buttermilk. You had your own fruit. You had pretty much everything so there wasn’t much you needed to buy.

What sorts of food did your mother make?

She’s really good at making bread. She was very fussy. It had to be as light as a feather. That was very critical. You don’t make the recipe if you only make one. You make a whole rack of these things. They go in the freezer, or you give them away. Her borsch! Unbelievable! My favourite was the Christmas borsch. Sometimes the borsch was made with spareribs. It’s so good, but you don’t get that anymore. Anything she cooked, there was no recipe, which is amazing.

How would you describe your mother?

She had a very strong personality. When she came to the country in 1930, where she was supposed to go to work, she decided, no, she’s not going there. She went some-where else, farther west. She didn’t come with any family members. There was no family here. She didn’t really know the language so, twenty-something, early to come on your own. That takes something. I think about it and I don’t know if I could do it.

Why did your mother come to Canada?

Her coming to Canada was prompted by a relative who had been to America or Canada and seen what was here. When he went back to Western Ukraine, he said to my grandmother, “There’s nothing for her here. She’s better to go away,” and my grandmother probably had more foresight than a lot of the women at that time, sent their only daughter away that they would never see again. That takes a lot, but she could probably see that there was nothing for her where she was immediately.

What did your mother do when she came to Canada?

She ended up in Alberta, in a place called Mundare, which is north of Edmonton. There was quite a large Ukrainian community there and I think that’s somewhat closer to Vegreville. There is a community there with a huge, giant Easter egg, and she stayed there for a short period of time. She was a cook and bottle washer for a Jewish family. In the area that she came from in Western Ukraine, there was a large Jewish population. So she would know the food. She would know a bit about what to do and what not to do.

What did your father do?

He always worked. He always found a job. He was a blacksmith at a logging camp so he was away, but during that whole period of time, which is now the Depression, he was always working. By always working, he was able to afford the property when they came to Richmond. Mom was not going to have any more winters in Alberta, so they moved to BC. Somewhere between ’37 and ’46, he was able to purchase a property and build that house, because there’s pictures of me in that house on Francis Road, a big three-storey house. So they obviously had some means to do this, but all that time he was working as a blacksmith. He found a job at BC Packers and stayed there for the rest of his life which says a lot for him, which is kind of admirable.

How involved was your family with the Ukrainian Church?

Dad probably did go to church, but Mom went to church more. She was there pretty well every Sunday. I’m now there more. I didn’t go as much when I was a kid or even in my teens or even older, but things shifted. I’m there now. Where she’s not there anymore, I’m there every Sunday. I’m not that involved with the Ukrainian Hall but more so with the Church. That was Mom’s thing. Church was just around the corner. We just kind of went in.