VERA KOPYNSKY (BYTIUHA) -

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VERA KOPYNSKY (nee BYTIUHA) 1920 - 2012 Our beloved mother and grandmother, Vera Kopynsky (nee Bytiuha) passed away peacefully on September 9, 2012 at Holy Family Home. She is survived by her daughters Maria Halkewycz (Bohdan), Christina (Ken McKeen) and Katherine McKay (Richard); grandson Andrei Halkewycz, granddaughter Daria McKay, her special nieces Halyna, Irena, Lesia, and Raisa and family in Ukraine. She was predeceased by her husband, Michael, her parents and all five of her brothers and sisters. Vera was born in Szlatyn in the Cholm region of Ukraine on May 11, 1920 to Pavlo Kirilovich Bytiuha and Maria Antonina Viter. She had a happy childhood as one of six children in a prosperous and secure home. She finished her secondary schooling in Lubaczow and began working in the local civil administration. Here she met Michael, a young lawyer and teacher and in the midst of war, she and Michael married. Caught between the retreating German Nazi and the approaching Soviet Communist armies, she and her husband fled westward, first to Vienna and then to a displaced person's camp in Bertesgaden, where Maria was born. They applied to Canada as stateless refugees and in July, 1948, arrived at Pier 21, Halifax. The vibrant Ukrainian community of St. Boniface embraced the young family and their early lives centered around UNF (St. Boniface) and Sts. Peter and Paul Church. Life was hard and survival difficult in an unfamiliar land. Vera worked long hours in the fur industry to help support the family and later to help her husband obtain his Masters of Social Work degree. With the births of Christina and Katherine, she became a full time homemaker, and devoted herself to the upbringing of her three daughters. Strict and uncompromising, she taught them to achieve their best by the example of her enormous capacity for work. She worked, created a magnificent garden, ran the entire house and sewed almost all the girls' clothes. Her grandchildren Andrei and Daria spent many of their childhood days with her. Their beloved Babycia taught them to make babka and pyrohu and kept them laughing throughout those days. Always, Vera and Michael felt a deep gratitude to this country of Canada that gave them and their children the rights and liberties of a free society. With the death of Michael in 1990, Vera continued in her own home, as the foundation and focus of her family, until her move to Holy Family Home in 2008. We wish to express our special thanks to Yuri and Marika Nosyk for their kindness to our mother, to Dr. Taras Babick and the staff at Holy Family for their care and invaluable advice. We mourn our mother and grandmother, but are content that she rests in peace after a full, exciting and tumultuous life. Vichna ii Pamiyat. Funeral services will be at the Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral of Saint Mary the Protectress, 820 Burrows Avenue at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, September 15 with Rev. Fr. A. Harkavyi officiating. Interment at All Saints Cemetery will follow. In lieu of flowers, donations in Vera's memory may be made to the Ukrainian Cultural and Educational Centre, 184 Alexander Ave. E., Winnipeg, MB R3B 0L6. KORBAN FUNERAL CHAPEL 204-956-2193

As published in Winnipeg Free Press on Sep 14, 2012