Darrell William Pacholok

told by Darrell to Charles & Dixie Minaker

I was born on the 18th of October, 1963 in Athabasca Alberta.  My parents, Bill and Janet, lived 16 miles from town on the family farm that my Baba and Gido homesteaded in the 1900's.  I have two younger brothers and a younger sister, and over the years we had a number of pets.  I attended school in Athabasca and I liked to play hockey, basketball, the saxophone, and was involved in Ukrainian Dancing.  While attending school in Athabasca

I worked for Alberta Treasury Branches(ATB) for work experience before graduating high school in 1981.  I was registered at Northern Institute of Technology (NAIT) for accounting when my boss at the ATB offered me a full time job.  Over the years I have worked in many areas of the bank receiving training from ATB. In 1984 I met Shirley while working with the ATB audit department  based out of Ponoka Alberta.  She also worked for ATB and was from Cold Lake.  We were married in Athabasca one year later and honeymooned in Kelowna, BC and Spokane, Washington.  

We made our home in Calgary.  Later we purchased our first home in Airdrie and lived there for 12 years.  Both of our children, Shane and Kyle, where born while we lived there.  I was very involved in the Airdrie Minor Hockey Program both coaching and sitting on the Executive of the Minor Hockey Program. From Airdrie we moved to Consort where we lived for only 9 months but I enjoyed it.  I make friends easily and there was golfing, curling, playing ball and hockey with the "Old Timers."

The next transfer was to Westlock where we lived for 5 years.  We were now closer to my parents and I liked to help with the harvest each summer.  We also enjoyed camping in our 5th wheel trailer. I was involved in Rotary, was President of the Westlock Curling Club, and spent many hours with good friends at the local curling club and golf course. We then moved to Bonnyville where Shirley and I built a new home on 5 acres of land we owned near the lake.  We acted as the  General Contractors, and I spent hundreds of hours working on this project.  It was a feeling of accomplishment when we were done. I volunteered on the Chamber of Commerce Executive.  We enjoyed boating, sledding, and quading.   We lived here for two years before another work opportunity presented itself which took us to St Albert.

One year after relocating to St Albert I was diagnosed  with a brain tumor.  Chemo therapy, radiation, and prayers reduced the tumor to where it couldn't be seen on X-rays.  My thoughts turned to God and I began to search for a Christian Church that I wanted to attend.  I attended church services at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known as Mormon) and felt the desire to be baptized.  I resolved that I would be baptized with full purpose of heart.  One year later Shirley and I attended the Temple and were sealed together in a special marriage ceremony thereby sealing us together in marriage for time and all eternity.  While recovering from my illness I spent a lot of time reading, indexing historical records, and working on my families geneology.

With my Cancer in remission we moved back to Cold Lake where Shirley continued to work and where her parents and our two boys lived.  We lived in Cold Lake for four years and while living in Cold Lake our oldest son Shane married Leslie and they now have two children; Mia who is three and Beau who is one. I am proud to be their Papa.  I have always enjoyed working with my hands and while living in Cold Lake I enjoyed refinishing many real estate projects.  I had the opportunity to work with my sons and teach them this skill.  I enjoyed this time with them very much.

The Cancer has returned bringing us back to St Albert where I needed to receive chemo therapy infusions every three weeks to slow the cancer growth down.  This treatment worked for awhile but we found out in March 2013 that it was no longer working

The above story was told by Darrell to Charles and Dixie Minaker.  Thank you to the Minakers for having the interest and taking the time to record Darrells' life story.  Darrells ability to communicate was already diminishing; this is one of the last pieces of substantial communication from Darrell.

* * * * * * * * * *

Darrell William Pacholok passed away

peacefully after a long and

courageous battle with cancer

at the age of 50 years

with his family & friends by his side.

Left to cherish his memory are

his loving wife Shirley,

sons Shane (Leslie), and Kyle,

grandchildren Mia and Beau,

parents Bill & Janet, siblings

Glenn (Rosie), Valerie (Bob) Broda,

Brent (Nicole), as well as numerous

nieces, nephews, other relatives

and many friends.

The family wishes to extend

special thanks to

Dr. Fulton and Molly at the

Cross Cancer Institute.

As well as Dr. Fischer

and the nurses and staff

on Unit 17 at the Sturgeon Hospital.

Special thanks to Nice-Flora

for all her tender home care

over the past 10 months.