ETA KUPCA

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ETA KUPCA August 10, 1943 - December 1, 2015 Eta Kupca was told she had mere months to live in the 1990s. She proved that grim prognosis wrong by not just living, but thriving for another two decades. A mother, wife, gardener, teacher and lover of art, opera and nature, Eta died December 1, 2015 at the University of Ottawa's Heart Institute. She was 72. For more than a third of her life, she lived with the likes of leukemia, lymphoma and diminished heart function but repeatedly refused to succumb to her ailments, to the amazement and joy of her family and friends. Eventually, the combined force of her illnesses and treatments became too much for even her to overcome; she extinguished every last trick in what her loving husband Stefan called her "box of miracles" one day before their 48th anniversary. Eta was born Etela Stroblova in 1943 in Bratislava, the capital of what was then the Slovak Republic. She studied to be a teacher in the city of Trnava and taught elementary school in the village of Budmerice. In 1967, she met Stefan at a tavern in the Tatry Mountains. They married in December of that year, had their daughter Katarina in 1968 and then immigrated to Canada, via West Germany, in 1970. The Kupcas settled in Winnipeg, where Stefan studied to be a physicist. Eta supported the family by working as a server at Pizza Place and Rae & Jerry's Steakhouse. They spent 11 happy years in Manitoba, camping on weekends in Whiteshell Provincial Park and enjoying the wilderness across the province. In 1981, they moved to Deep River, ON, where Stefan took a job with Atomic Energy of Canada. The family moved to Ottawa in 1989, where Eta lived the remainder of her life. She loved to work in the garden, transforming the back yard of their Nepean home into a bucolic vision every summer. She also worked as an interior designer, employing her amazing eye and impeccable sense of taste. She was a perfectionist, in the best sense of the term. Eta had a childlike sense of curiosity. She cherished every experience, be it the feel a piece of glassware or the architecture of an old building or the presence of a new colourful insect in her yard. Everything was wondrous to her, especially after the first of her close calls with death. She appreciated every additional day she was granted. Eta leaves behind her adoring husband Stefan, her daughter Katarina (ex-husband Bartley) in Winnipeg, her brother Viktor Strobl (Marta) in Bratislava, and a network of close friends. Her family wishes to thank the staff at the Heart Institute and Ottawa General, her doctors Turek, O'Connor, Lewin and especially Mesana, who extended her life dramatically in 2004. A celebration of Eta's life will be arranged for the new year. In lieu of flowers, please donate to the University of Ottawa Heart Institute.

As published in Winnipeg Free Press on Dec 05, 2015