James Orest Taschuk

Jamie and Jessica: We are the grandchildren. Last night as group we all discussed our memories of Gida and there were quite a few we all commonly shared.

Jamie: Jess and I are going to share some of those common memories, then you will hear a few more from everyone else.

Jess: Pull my finger. Star Wars, Star Trek, Star Gate.

Jamie: Playing Sequence, Yahtzee, and Crib. Walks at the lake.

Jess: Crossword puzzles, reading.

Jamie: He was always there. Birthdays and Christmas.

Jess: Ukrainian vegetable toes. Watching movies when Nanny took her naps.

Jamie: Always encouraging “Eat your vegetables, it’ll put hair on your feet.” The movie Ice age

Jess: Doting and loving on Nanny. Super deaf.

Jamie: His smile and checking the mail.

Jess: He would wipe our faces and say “Yuckies.” Salt on his cucumbers

Jamie: Butter in his tea when he was sick. And last, he made everyone feel so special.

Jess: Dishes. And looked good.

Jamie: Lynne’s chocolate brownies and putting cottage cheese on pancakes.

Natasha

My name is Natasha. I’ll try my best to share these 4 special moments about Gida with you.

I remember dancing to record music in the basement with Gida and watching him dance with Nanny. He loved his ladies and he was a smooth mover.

I remember that Gida would always have a hammock setup when he knew I was coming to visit. When I relaxed in the hammock I often saw him watching me from the deck with a smile on his face.

I remember driving on Westside road in the truck with Gida when I was about 14. I had my window rolled down and all of a sudden I felt something hit my arm and I freaked out, convinced that bird had dove into the truck. Gida chuckled while I screamed and pulled the truck over. We searched high and low and there was no bird to be found. Gida laughed at me and got a kick out of my little fit. He teased me about it ears later.

This last story is sweet. Four months ago Rob and I were visiting Nanny and Ida and we took Gida to fill some prescriptions. At the time he was tired and not feeling well. He came into the store with Nanny and I but then left us to wait in the car. When we got back to Nanny and Gida’s house, Gida unveiled a Lily plant that he had bought for Nanny while we thought he was waiting in the car. Even when he wasn’t well, he was still a romantic.

Morgan

My memories of Gida include:

• All the cousins in the back of the truck headed to the lake

• Saying “nah nice”

• Always on the deck reading with a wave when you pull up in the driveway

• Calling us girls Kooditchka

When I was younger, Nanny and Gida came to visit. The new Star Wars movie had just come out, and of course Gida wanted to see it. No one else wanted to see it, so I said I would go. Once we were standing in line he turned to me and said, “So, are we going Dutch?” He paid for me ticket.

About a month and a half so Nanny and I made plans to meet at the hospital to see Gida, so I whipped up a batch of cookies and went to visit. I got there before Nanny, and when I got to Gida’s room he wasn’t there. So I went searching and found him sitting alone in the only sunny corner he could find and was reading peacefully. I sad with him in that sunny window and we shared cookies and enjoyed each other’s company until Nanny got there.

One fall when I was around 13 Mom, Nanny, and Gida and I were going out. Gida and I headed out to the truck and sat together in the back. If you’re sitting in the back of the Ranger you are sitting each other. One of us made a comment about how much of our time is spent waiting on Taschuk women because Mom and Nanny were dawdling. We laughed and Gida smiled at me and said “Morgan, you have the most beautiful smile.” You too Gida.

Sarah

We were all meant to go to Seattle to celebrate Nanny’s 75th birthday at the start of May. Unfortunately Gida wasn’t up to the trip and couldn’t stay at home alone, so I volunteered to stay with him. The first morning we had to get up early to drive into Vernon for an appointment. Afterwards, we stopped for some groceries and gas and I asked if he wanted a treat but he said no. While I was getting groceries I saw him go through the checkout, I was surprised as we had agreed he would wait for meat the front. He came over to me. He had gotten himself a little individual Haagen Das ice cream cup and he needed a spoon because he was set on eating it right now! We asked at the deli and got him a spoon. When I finished shopping he was sitting by the door having a hard time getting the plastic seal off the treat and starting to get impatient. I took it to help while he waited in anticipation with his huge spoon. When I broke the seal and opened the lid, of course, there was the tiny spoon to go with the tiny ice cream! “Look Gida, there was the spoon all along!” I said. He grunted and dug into the ice cream with the oversized deli spoon anyway. That little ice cream didn’t last the walk out to the car. That evening he waited as long as he could to phone Nanny’s hotel, but finally he picked up the phone and was on a mission. “I’m calling to speak to my wife Sylvia Taschuk.” He was so relieved and happy to finally hear her voice. Even when he wasn’t feeling at his best, it make him happy that Nanny was happy. And He didn’t mind my cooking either!

Brad B

Hi I’m Brad. I’ve known Gida for 4 years now. First, last year at Morgan’s wedding I was staying at Nanny and Gida’s house. I had packed my clothes and they were quite w. I asked Nanny if she could help me iron my clothes, and she said “No, ask Gida.” So Gida took me downstairs and he taught me how o iron my own clothes.

In the hospital, saying my last goodbye to Gida we were sitting there in complete silence. He opened his eyes, looked at me and said “I’m so happy I got to meet you.”

Chelsea

Hello everyone, my name is Chelsea and I am Lee and Lynn’s third child and Gida’s fifth grandchild. I am so thankful for the many memories I have with Gida. The one I want to share today is one that I observed in my childhood and came to expect and deeply appreciate as I became an adult. As a child I spent a lot of time at Nanny and Gida’s, and learned that Gida was a man with certain mannerisms and habits. One that stood out to me was how Gida responded when the phone rang. I can remember sitting in the kitchen or living room reading, chatting with Nanny, or watching TV, and when the phone would start to ring, I would watch as Gida would come running. Sometimes he would be sitting in his chair, but often I watched him run from the kitchen or patio o come running up the stairs to come answer the phone with a specific tone. His mannerisms often consisted of dropping into his chair before answering with a “Hello,” that had a certain drawl to it that only Gida had. SO as I got older and moved away and spent less time at Nanny and Gida’s, these images often accompanied me as I waited to hear Gida’s voice on the other end of my call. You see, Gida almost always answered the phone. It was very rare for me to call and hear Nanny first thing, and I found a certain comfort when I hear Gida’s familiar and warm “Hullo” echo across the phone line. Gida I am going to miss hearing your voice on the other end.

Nicole

A recent memory of Gida that I really loved happened just this past February. Mico and I came out to BC for a visit during our week off of university to spend time with Nanny and Gida. Gida had been a bit down around that time because he was tired of having sick and we hoped to be able to lift his spirits. After dinner one night we stayed at the table for tea and Gida started talking about growing up in the farm with his twin brother Bob. He talked about riding horseback to school and then started telling us stories about how, at around 8 years old, they tried to make wine out of ingredients in the field and also how they made corn cob pipes and to extremely ill when they attempted to smoke them. This memory stands out so much to be because Gida laughed so hard that he cried telling these stories, which seemed to be the best medicine at that point. IT was so refreshing to see that huge smile plastered on his face again.

Something I always thought was so funny about Gida happened during car rides. He was always so quiet in the car, but as you got to know him you would discover that he was quiet because he was reading everything outside the window. He would be dead silent for 20 minutes and then all of a sudden you would hear something like “Rogers Video” and be reminded that Gida was in the car.

Nanny and Gida always drove to Calgary for Christmas every couple of years. One Christmas something happened that everyone remembers. THE house was all decorated in the Christmas getup which included three snowmen who sat on a shelf just above the toilet. When nanny and Gida arrived from BC this particular year, Gida used the washroom right away. Sometime later my Mom used the washroom and asked us all why the snowmen were all turned around with their backs to the toilet. Without hesitation Gida says “they were watching me!”

Levi

So three years ago I was peacefully lying in a hammock in Nanny and Gida’s yard when a cold cup full of water splashed all over my body. In my surprise and confusion I heard Gida’s laughter rising from his deck above me, and I joined in his laughter once I realized he had thrown the water on me.

Gida would often greet or approach me by raising his fists as if to box with me while telling me to “put my dukes up.”

Gida had a unique way of pronouncing the word cool, and he would usually use this word in a humorous context, such as when I wore mismatched socks or he caught me picking my nose. In such instances he would light heartedly tell me “cool.”

Mico

I understand that I didn’t know Gida for as long as many people in this room, but I think many of you would agree that it doesn’t take very long to see the kind of person Gida was. That he was a man dedicated to his family and to everyone in it. He is the kind of person that goes out of his way to make you feel special and loved. I had the great privilege of spending time with Gida in his last days, and for those of you in this room who were not there, I can assure you that I’ve never seen a man so sincerely admired and adored and loved by his family that surrounded him. It looked like a lifetime of love was coming back around and keeping him warm and loved until the very end. So with Gida in our hearts and minds, I think we should take a page from his books and take the time to look at the family that we have around us and tell them that we love them and appreciate them, for we never know what the future could hold, and we never know how that love will come back to us even decades later.

Alex

He was a kind man. HE used to call me Charlie Brown. HE smiled a lot, he was a great grandfather. He was always there for you. I loved him.

Ariana

He was fun. He would scare me and say boo! He would tell me jokes.

Eulogy for James Orest Taschuk

Mike Jim Taschuk; A son, a brother, a husband, our father and our children’s Gida.

He came from family, he and Mom made their own family and then he became the center of our extended family.

Lee: Dad was family.

Lois: Dad grew up on a family farm in St. Paul, Alberta with his 10 siblings. At the age of 17 he left the farm and joined the Air Force. While posted in St. Margaret’s New Brunswick he met Sylvia, our mother, the “love of his life”.

Mike: At that time Mom wrote home that she had met the man she was going to marry. Mom always said that for her it was “love at first sight”.

Lee: And in true mom fashion, she then told Dad that his was also “love at first sight”. They were married 9 months later- Dad was 23 and Mom was 20.

Lois: Even though they came from very large families, or maybe because of that, they only had 3 children of their own and left it up to us to populate the continent.

Mike: I have 4 children: Marielle, married to Philip; Matthew, married to Eva; Alexander and Gracie. I also have 5 grandchildren: Eric, Leander, Raphael, Aloysius and Juniper- who was born just 2 weeks ago.

Lee: I have 6 children: Natasha, married to Rob; Sarah; Chelsea, married to Bradley; Jessica; Josiah and Levi.

Lois: I’m the sensible one. I only have 3 children: Morgan, married to Jordan; Nicole married to Mico and Jamie.

Mike: For Mom and Dad and the 3 of us life as a military family was an adventurous one full of travel, moving every 2 to 3 years. We’ve all driven from one coast to the other multiple times…

Lee: …Mom knows the location of every Dairy Queen on the Trans-Canada Highway! And she made Dad stop at each of them. For some of those long trips when we were small Dad built a wooden bench across the transmission hump in the back of the car so that we 3 could sleep while he was driving. Who needs seat belts?

Lois: Dad built a lot of things…and he fixed a lot of things. He was the ultimate handy-man. He had to be, being an enlisted man money was always tight. But what money there was went to family first.

Mike: And to make sure we had enough Dad always had part time jobs. Here are a few that he did while he worked full time in the military and after retirement:

• Upholsterer

Lee • Carpenter

Lois • Painter

Mike • Small and Large engine mechanic

Lee • Appliance Repair

Lois • Postal Worker

Mike • Security Guard

Lee • Commissionaire

Lois • Tree Farm Laborer

Mike • Shipping & Receiving

Lee • Orderly in a home for Adults with Disabilities

Lois • He and Mom owned their own Janitorial service

Mike • Salvation Army Thrift Store Manager

Lee: Dad was a Jack-of-all-trades but a Master family man.

Lois: During our noisy family gatherings he was always drawn to the child, or grandchild, or great grandchild who was being quiet and needed him. He was steadfast in caring for each of us in our lives. Here, from the 3 of us is a small portion of how he filled our lives:

Mike: When I left home and throughout the years, my faith in Dad’s strength and ability to guide me and save me from whatever I couldn’t handle on my own sustained me. I knew I could always come home to him. He has passed that strength on to me and now that he’s gone I can carry on and provide that same steadfastness to my family.

Lee: Dad was my inspiration for the kind of worker I would be.

- No matter what the job you do your very best, go the extra mile

- If you didn’t succeed the first time, well you kept at it until you got it right

- He was a very hard worker, he made sure his family was provided for

Lois: If you ask my brothers they will, to this day, say that I was spoiled. I was “Daddy’s little girl.” I was Dad’s Kudishka, his princess. He had a presence in my life that was quiet in volume but loud in effect. I never questioned his love for me and took for granted his strength. Looking through family photo albums there are numerous pictures of Dad and me sitting beside each other sharing quiet moments. We didn’t share the gift of gab… He left that to me and Mom. Dad shared the nickname Kudishka with all of the granddaughters but he saved “Princess” for me. Now I know every granddaughter is saying to themselves…he called me Princess too.

Mike: Thank you all for joining us in celebrating our father. We mourn our loss but we take comfort in knowing that such a beautiful, joyous, full life was lived by such a deserving man. We, here, are all a testament to that life.