ILENCHUK-HAJDUK, Eva (Hrenchuk) - Mamtsya passed away quietly in her sleep three days short of her 91st birthday on October 07, 2018. Although her eyes were closed she still carried her unmistakable Mona Lisa-like expression in her face. Her care-providers at Ivan Franko Home were visibly moved, for mamtsya was ever the provider of warmth, humility and grace. She is already missed.
Mamtsya was born Eva Hrenchuk on October 10, 1927 in what was then Rava Russkaya, Galicia (Poland). During the Holodomyr of the 1930's both her mother and younger brother died leaving her with 2 sisters (both of whom have predeceased Eva in Ukraine).
At the age of 14 she was taken by the occupying Nazi Germans to forced labour on a farm in Austria. Her resilience and bon humeur enabled her to survive the next four years, whereupon she was taken to a post-war Red Cross facility in Villach, Austria.
It was there that she met her first true love Teodor Ilenchuk and eventually married him in 1947. She gave birth to her first son Theodore Antoney in 1948. While Teodor was off to Batawa, Ontario as a refugee, she remained with her son in Europe (Austria and England) until Teodor had met his obligations whereupon they rejoined him in Montreal in 1949.
Her second son, Peter-Paul, was born in Trenton, Ontario in 1951. Peter-Paul recently predeceased Eva in 2015.
Mamtsya worked tirelessly during the 50's running a 12-room rooming house while working part-time as a nurse's aide at the Western Hospital. Eventually the family went into private business which saw mamtsya operating 2 separate retail businesses in Toronto until Teodor's death in 1973.
In 1979 mamtsya re-married, to Peter Hajduk, while working for the RCMP as a cook and mothering new police recruits as they passed through the Toronto offices. During these years mamtsya worked as a volunteer in the kitchens of St. Volodymyr's Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral.
As a member of the Ukrainian Women's group, mamtsya received several awards for her decades of volunteer service in Ontario.
Mamtsya leaves her son Dr. Toney Ilenchuk and daughter-in-law Tisha Taylor Ilenchuk. She will now be in God's grace alongside her two husbands Teodor Ilenchuk and Peter Hajduk and Peter-Paul Ilenchuk, her youngest son.
Mamtsya will be buried alongside Teodor at Park Lawn Cemetery on Friday October 12, 2018 following the funeral service at Cardinal Funeral Home (Bathurst Chapel), Toronto.
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