Atanasia “Tanya” (Klym) Osadca, of Rocky Hill, and formerly of Wethersfield, died peacefully at home on Sunday, December 29, 2019. She was born in Siedlce, Poland, of Ukrainian parents, Andriy and Paulina (Elyjiw) Klym. After immigrating to the US in 1950, Tanya lived in several states: first New Jersey, then Illinois, California, Illinois again, Ohio, and finally Connecticut. Before moving to Wethersfield, she lived in Troy, Ohio, for six years.
She met the love of her life, the late Dr. Bohdan Osadca, in Erlangen, Germany. They were married for 62 years before he passed away in 2009. Tanya is survived by her daughter Irma Osadsa-Payne, and son-in-law Thomas Payne, of Toronto, Ontario; her son Cornel Osadsa and daughter-in-law Dr. Deborah Sirko-Osadsa, of North Grafton, Massachusetts; her brother Justyn Klym and his wife Jacqueline of Toronto, Ontario; and two grandchildren, Natalia Payne of New York City; and Nicholas Payne of Hudson, New York. She was predeceased by her sister Aka Pereyma of Troy, Ohio.
After moving to Wethersfield, she became a member of the Ukrainian National Home and Saint Michael the Archangel Ukrainian Catholic Church, both in Hartford. She was also a member of the Ukrainian Museum in New York City, the Ukrainian Museum & Library in Stamford, Connecticut, and the Ukrainian Museum-Archives in Cleveland, Ohio.
Tanya’s two passions in life were her family and Ukrainian folk art. She was devoted to the research and creation of pysanky, Ukrainian Easter eggs. She conducted many demonstrations of the art form, and presented hundreds of exhibitions and art shows of her eggs. One of her last demonstrations was a lesson, conducted by Skype, for the Ukrainian community in Austin, Texas. She lectured about pysanky several times at the annual conference of the American Folklore Society, and she was selected by the Ohio Arts Council to represent Ohio with an exhibit at the 1993 presidential inauguration in Washington, DC. A few years after Ukraine gained its independence from the Soviet Union, the National History Museum in Kyiv, Ukraine, asked her to organize an exhibition of her pysanky which then went on tour throughout the newly independent nation, and is now on permanent display in Poltava, Ukraine. For her work in helping to revive this art form in Ukraine, then President Leonid Kuchma awarded her the medal of “Honored Master of Ukrainian Folk Art.”
The funeral service will be Saturday, January 4, at 10:30 a.m. at Saint Michael the Archangel Ukrainian Catholic Church, 135 Wethersfield Ave., Hartford. Burial will be at St. Michael’s Cemetery, New London Turnpike, Glastonbury. Visitation will be on Friday, January 3, from 4 to 6 p.m. at the D’Esopo Funeral Chapel, 277 Folly Brook Blvd., Wethersfield. A Panakhyda service will follow at 6 p.m. For on-line expressions of sympathy, please visit www.desopofuneralchapel.com.
COMPARTA UN OBITUARIO
v.1.8.18