Born - April 21 1927
Married - Peter Saganski July 30 1949 at Hafford SK
Widowed - January 17, 1991
Children - Eileen, David, Carolyn and Michael
Grandchildren - Kevin, Colin, Jeffrey Saganski. Lara and Robert Ewanchuk
Photo Galleries - Gallery1,  Gallery2,  Children,  Grandchildren,

I was born on "Holy Thursday" April 21, 1927 on our homestead farm home seven miles north of Hafford Saskatchewan. My parents were Katherina (nee:Harach) and Anthony Zuck. I was the youngest child and the luckiest. I had two older sisters, Anne, born on January 20, 1916 so she was eleven years older. Nettie (Anastasia) born on March 15, 1917, she was ten years older. My three brothers were Don, born on December 27, 1918, he was 9 years older. Bud (Bohdan) was born on January 30th, 1920, he was seven years older. Victor, born on June 13, 1925 and was two years my senior when I had come into the family.

To date (2006) we have buried
Katherina (mom) - July 20 1945 - 55 years old
Anthony (dad) - April 25 1954 - 59 years old
Bud (Bohdan)(brother) - January 26 1977 - 57 years old
Nettie (Anastasia)(sister) - November 5 1982 - 65 years old
Anne (sister) - March 13 1996 - 80 years old
Victor (brother) - September 25 1999 - 74 years old

Dad was born in Dowznie, Western Ukraine July 25, 1892 and emigrated to Canada age 16. Mother Katherina was born on December 24, 1890 in Sokal, Western Ukraine and was sponsored to emigrate to Canada by her eldest brother, Uncle Harry Harach. Harry and his brothers Nick, John and Peter, their families and Auntie Anne and John Parchoma had come to Canada years earlier and were living in the Hafford/Krydor areas.

Mom's mother had died very young and when Mom was 12 years old she was sent away to her uncle and aunt's to look after their small children while they were at work. She used to tell us how mean the uncle and aunt were to her. So when she was given some time off she returned to her Father's and told him she didn't want to return, but her father made her go back as the arrangement had been that she was working off a loan made to her Dad. Mom asked how long she had to stay, returned and spent the next two years working off the debt.

Mom then left and went to the Czecho region of Czechoslovakia where she was employed by many elegant homes as a personal maid to the lady of the house. At mealtimes she helped the cook prepare meals and was the server. Mom was exposed to various elegant dishes where she learned the specialties that were to be the envy of her neighbors in Hafford later in life, mainly her apple strudel and other pastries. She attended theater and operas and through her career as 'ladies maid' learned how to care for their elegant wardrobes. She chided us that there is a difference in 'ladies'. A 'real lady' can go out on a muddy day, dressed in a serge skirt with train and return with the bottom of her skirt and train as elegant as she left. Another would come back coated in mud. This was to impress upon us how to wear and be respectful of our 'Sunday' clothes. Another of her frequent remarks she made was "It's not the amount of clothing you have, but the quality was more important". Her recipes were all in her head and only sister Anne was able to write some of them down when she was married at 19 to Jack Zaleschuk.

Being the youngest, I heard many of mother's teachings being repeated and repeated to my older siblings. Therefore I don't remember being directly told the do's and don'ts. Probably she had enough of the repeats and figured I had heard them all too. I was my Dad's favorite, he would toss me to the ceiling when he came into the house and told Victor and myself many fables on the long winter nights. As the favorite, whenever one of my brothers wanted a favor, they got me to ask him, as it was more sure that he would grant it.

Sister Anne married Jack Zaleschuk when she was 19. When Jack was courting Anne, Victor and I looked forward to his arrival on Sundays. He always teased us and tossed us about, playing. As well, chocolate cake or pudding was always on the menu when he was expected. I remember Jack saying cake didn't deserve to be eaten if it didn't have frosting on it. Jack and Anne were blessed with Victor, born on June 19, 1943. Mom sent me to help my sister at Zaleschuk's when she came home from the hospital. I was 16 and those two weeks were a highlight in my memories. Anne and I would bring the cows in for milking, milk them, separate the milk, keep the cream and feed the milk to the stock. We went wild strawberry picking, and talked of many things. I became much closer to my older sister in those two weeks.

That fall I was sent to take my grade XI in Saskatoon. Through contacts of my sister Nettie, I went to live with the Zerebecki family on avenue J south. Since their daughter Helen was starting high school and was going to the Technical School, I also registered there. Her brother Billy was still in grade school. High school in the city was quite an adjustment, but soon I made friends with some of my classmates, studied and did my homework diligently and well. So at year end I was recommended in all my classes, so I had no final exams to write for the first time. My stay at Zerebecki's was a real fun year. Helen, Billy and I became close friends and I was treated like one of the family.

The second world war 1939-1946, was on and my brothers Don and Bud were serving in the air force. Don was an 'Officer Pilot' overseas in England and Africa. Bud was a 'Warrant Officer First Class' with the ferry command, transferring planes from Canada to England. My Dad had a threshing outfit for many years and would hire field men who with their rack and team would deliver sheafs from the field to the threshing machine. He would move this outfit from farm to farm custom harvesting their crops. During the war years there were no young men left on the farms, so the threshing was done by the very old, and very young. I remember being put on the hay rack with a pitch fork to arrange the sheafs while sister Nettie and brother Victor would toss the sheaf's up to me. We could only fill the rack half full and then would take them to the thresher. Dad would start it up, thresh the sheafs we brought, stop the machine and we would go out and fill up the rack again. It was slow compared to prewar days but it was the best in the wartime situation. At this time my sister Nettie was teaching school nearby, so in summer she was able to be home to help in any way she could.

The following fall, 1944, I was sent back to Saskatoon for grade XII. I boarded at brother Bud and his wife Doris on Landsdowne Avenue. They had a baby girl, Evangaline who was very ill with an R-H factor, a blood disorder and at 9 months of age she died. Bud was away in the war and so Doris and I made the funeral arrangements with Fr. Firman at St. George's church. Brother Victor was staying at the Shepticky Institute for boys and attending university taking education classes. I visited him once a week so I got to know some of the boys that stayed there. Peter Tendick, Orest Bobyn, Peter Zadworny and Wally Nimitz. We all belonged to the Ukrainian Catholic Youth Organization and many the time we walked from the institute on 4th Avenue to St George's at 20th Street and Avenue M. Later someone would walk with me all the way downtown, across the Broadway Bridge to my home on Landsdowne Avenue. In those days all the young people walked, having no cars and very few bikes, there was a war still on.

Brother Don was discharged from the war after serving three years overseas and he married Vera Bociurko from Edmonton. Canada allowed a year of education for every year enlisted so Don decided to go to the University of Alberta. They made their home in Edmonton and Don enrolled in Pharmacy.

I completed my grade XII in June 1945 and only had to write a departmental algebra exam. When I came home from school Mom told me that she was booked for two surgeries in Saskatoon in July. One, a varicose vein legation and after ten days, an umbilical hernia. She came thru her varicose surgery well, but five days after her abdominal surgery, she suddenly died on July 20, 1945 of a pulmonary embolism. I was 18 years old and Victor was 20. Dad and Nettie drove into Saskatoon to make funeral arrangements while Victor and I stayed on the farm to do the chores and milking, feeding the stock, and etc.

After Mom died Nettie went teaching in Albertown School. There was hardly any summer holiday, holidays at that time were from December (Christmas) till the end of February, during the coldest part of winter. So we only had about a week off between the old and new school year. That summer I was left alone to tend the yard, housekeeping and meals for my Dad. I applied for nurse's training at St. Paul's in Saskatoon for the fall of 1945 term, but I was not accepted as the class was already full and so they would hold my application till the next fall ('46). So I kept on keeping house for Dad and during this time killed my first chicken and goose, and made my first pot of borsch as everything Mom did was now up to me now. It wasn't easy as there were no stores or refrigeration except for a 'ice house' we made every winter, and everything came fresh and organically from our farm. In those days, if you wanted to eat it, you would have to pick/kill it, clean it and then cook it. Never mind the endless drawing water from the well for the animals at home and for household uses. I also tended the huge gardens we had in those days, as well as looking after and feeding the stock at home. Nettie was home for the weekends and we picked and processed the bounty into jars (sealers) for hours on end. We pickled a big barrel of dilled pickles just like Mom used to do, and I feeling a little 'cocky' decided to try a barrel of sauerkraut and whole heads of cabbage. A few days later I checked it and it had all gone bad, I had forgotten to salt it. So out it went. Nettie and I shredded another barrel of cabbage and heads and this time we added the salt and the result was just like Mom's.

Since we kept to the Julian Calendar at home, Nettie and I decided on a train trip to spend Christmastime with Don and Vera at their home in Edmonton. I milked my cows and put aside the cream money for my trip and expenses. Dad took me into Hafford to catch the train and I connected with Nettie in North Battleford and we went on together.

While in Edmonton I mentioned to Don that I wasn't accepted into nursing school and he said "I think the Gray Nun's here at the General Hospital start a class in February." So he phoned Sister Keagan and she confirmed there were still a few places open. So I interviewed with her and she asked for me to submit a Edmonton General Hospital application form she gave me, as well as to arrange for Sister Quintal in Saskatoon to forward all the application forms I had done for St. Paul's. To my delight Edmonton General Hospital accepted me for nurses training. On February 9, 1946 I was placed in a private home one block away from the hospital. There were four bedrooms upstairs, each with two single beds, one wardrobe and two washstands. Only one bathroom for us eight girls as well as the couple downstairs, but we managed. I was fortunate to share my room with Bobbie(Madeline)Pike from Lloydminster Saskatchewan. We became 'sisters' and after all these years we are still very close. We carried each other thru many hard days in those three years.

The other girls were - Gertrude Hermanetz and Mary Blenke who roomed together, Gertie left training to get married, Blenke graduated and married Pat McLaughlin and they farmed at Mannville Alberta. Marion Shaw and Bernice Adamson shared. Marion was a WWII Wren, more worldly than us young ones. She smoked, drank and got a $75 per month salary. Marion married George Semchuk and they live in Fredricton New Brunswick. I was her bridesmaid April 1949 in Edmonton and we never saw each other again till I was in Victoria British Columbia in February of 1995, 47 years later and we enjoyed our reunion very much. Bernice married, divorced and is still in British Columbia and nursing. Ella Mills and Jean Reid were roommates and Jean nursed in Ottawa Ontario and married late to an aviation pilot, retired now, and they live down east. Ella married Jack Galpin, ended up at White Rock British Columbia where they had an antique's business. I also had the good fortune to visit with them on my 1995 trip.

Julie and Bobby Pike	Graduating Class	Julie's Graduation

When I finished training in February of '49 my Dad, who had remarried Helen Novicki(nee:Zaleschuk) while I was away, came to my graduation and asked me to come home for awhile before I started nursing. So I did, and the day after I arrived home I was hired to nurse in the Hafford Hospital at $145 a month with no lodging allowance since I was going to live at home. Dr. Lanskail was the doctor at the time and he was a qualified surgeon too. So I was exposed to assisting him in surgery. Our matron was Miss Mess and some of the other nurses were Olga(Pee Wee)Lipka and Lizabeth Frey. Ann Smyshak was a 'nurses aide' and we all spent many a twelve hour long shift working together. Ann married Walter Jaseniuk and they farmed north of Hafford. Her daughters attended the University of Saskatchewan at the same time our son David was enrolled there in dentistry.

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