Mark Woznesensky

It is with deep sadness and heavy hearts that we announce the sudden passing of our husband, father and grandfather, Mark Woznesensky on June 6th, 2012 at the age 63.

Left to cherish his memory is his beloved wife and best friend of 41 years, Mildred, daughter Carrie (Paul); son Jason (Randi); his grandchildren Keely, Lexi and Sophie.

Mark was born in Melville Saskatchewan in 1948 and later moved to Winnipeg with his family. Mark will be greatly missed by his brothers Lyall (Debbie), Perry (Bev), sisters Lori (Len), Ronnie (Ken), sister-in-law Gerri, brother-in-law Glen and many nieces and nephews. Mark was predeceased by his parents and his brother Brian.

Mark will always be remembered as a friendly, outgoing, selfless person. He loved to be around people and was always willing to lend a helping hand. Over the years Mark worked in construction the last 14 years being a site supervisor for G&E Homes. He always took immense pride in every project he worked on.

Family was everything to Mark. One of his favorite things to do was to play in the backyard with his grandchildren. He loved spending afternoons working in the yard, watching hockey, going to sporting events for his children and grandchildren. No matter what he did or where he went he always had a positive attitude and a smile on his face.

A funeral service will be held at Green Acres Funeral Home & Cemetery, Hwy 1 East and Navin Road on Saturday, June 9th 2012 at 4:00 pm.

The family would like to extend their thanks to the staff at Concordia Hospital emergency and the first responders.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Heart and Stroke Foundation.

GREEN ACRES

Funeral Home and Cemetery

(204) 222-3241

Condolences may be sent to

www.greenacresfuneralhome.com

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Eulogy - Read by Carrie (Mark's Daughter)

We never expected to be saying goodbye to my Dad so soon. He always laughed and said he was like a cat with nine lives. He was always the strong person in our family and no matter how many surgeries he had he always bounced back and kept as active as possible. In the last month he had been home and talked daily about returning to his regular routine of work and getting his jobs back on track. I don’t think my Dad would have retired as he has always led a busy life and felt complete when he had his family and his job.

My Dad was born on Aug. 2nd, 1948 in Melville, Saskatchewan. He has 3 brothers Brian (who is predeceased), Lyall and Perry and 2 sisters Lori and Ronnie. He always loved his family and always got really excited for family visits and looked forward to the monthly phone conversation as everyone was scattered across North America. There may have been years between visits but when dad got together with his family it was like they had just seen each other the day before. It was always easy to tell that they were related as they all had the family dimple and the same huge smile.

Dad first met mom when mom and her cousin Patty would suntan at Patty’s house, which just happened to be across from the apartments where my dad lived on Nottingham. They really liked watching the badass boys on their motorcycles and the boys really liked watching the cute girls sun tanning in their bikinis. Dad was pretty smitten with mom right from the beginning but mom played hard to get. My mom would go on dates with other guys and when she would get home my dad would be waiting for her. My mom was working at Cancer Research Center at the time and my dad used to pick her up from work. The only problem is that my mom never asked him to pick her up. He was just there and would offer to take her home. He even had a pack of cigarettes each time to entice her to let him take her home. Dad even got a buddy to give him a homemade tattoo saying “Mildred Loves Mark”. Can you say stalker. The funny thing is that none of this worked (I can’t imagine why). What eventually worked was Mom seeing a picture of dad in another girls wallet and mom figured she better get this guy locked down or she was going to lose out on one of the good ones. And was she right, he was one of the best.

In 1971 they got married and bought a house on Menno Bay. My mom and dad moved into that house and dad worked very hard to get it in the perfect condition he wanted. (Well, maybe what my mom wanted). A lot of people do not know this but my mom actually bought that first house as she had some money saved up from her job at the Hudson Bay Company. It kind of has been a joke around our house for years as it really was the foundation to all the other homes that my mom and dad purchased from that point on and my mom reminded my dad that he owed her big for that. Four years later I came into their lives and everything changed (For the better obviously). Family was everything to my Dad, so from the point I was born my dad wanted my mom to be a stay at home mom so she could always be there for his kids. My mom and dad quickly realized that the house on Menno Bay was going to be to small to raise a family so they ended up building a house on Diamond Street in North Kildonan. We moved to the house on Diamond when I was just about 2 years old and Jason was born about 3 years later. You would think that a really nice home on Diamond is where you would want to stay and raise a family but my dad had different plans. He wanted to build his family their dream home. He did so on Ranch road just off McIvor in North Kildonan. We moved onto Ranch when I was just turning 6 and Jason was just turning 1 and this was our home for the next 18 years. My dad did everything himself at Ranch, even putting the pool in. Just to be clear my father had never put a pool in but there was no way he was going to pay to have someone else do it for him. He did get the pool done but not without a few mishaps along the way. Let’s just say that if you swam to the bottom of the pool and rubbed the liner with your hand you could feel the footprints in the cement. Not to mention the fact that my dad had cement burns on his knees pretty much every day he was working on that pool. After 18 years my parent felt they needed a change so they eventually bought a lot in Pritchard Farm Properties where they built their current home. My dad once again wanted to do everything himself and had his family help along the way. Everything from all of us clearing brush on the lot before the house was even started to putting the drywall up and painting. It amazed us all how even at the age of 52 he could still jump from saw horse to saw horse with ease. He truly amazed me how agile and hard he worked when he was doing drywall.

My dad loved to work and he had his own drywall company, Mar-Way Drywall until he had to close up due to his health issues. After he was well enough to go back to work he starting working at G & E homes in Steinbach as a job site supervisor. Dad truly loved the people he worked with at G & E Homes and truly considered a lot of the trades he dealt with as his close friends.

There are so many things about my Dad that I will remember. From the time I was a little girl I wanted to be like him and I wanted to do everything he did. I had to wear (jeangers) jeans just like my Dad and I always wanted to work on the house. He taught me how to tie my shoes, well sort of, he taught me Bunny ears and to this day that is the only way I know how. He always had a job for me and took me everywhere he went. I learnt how to drywall, insulate, tape, paint and to this day I still use all of these skills. He loved it when I had a project with my own house and was always there at the crack of dawn waking me and asking for a coffee. He would come to drywall my basement and make me work harder than Paul. I really think I am one of the few girls who would hold up 12 ft sheets of drywall with her dad. He loved when Paul came into my life because he then had another member to his work crew. Paul quickly adapted to my dad’s often unsafe tools and realized that no matter what was broken or needed to be built I had to check with my Dad to make sure Paul was doing it right. For anyone who knows Paul you know how much he loved that I did this.

My dad loved my brother so much that Jason could do no wrong. He always loved spending time looking at trucks, seeing how fancy a truck dad could get even if it was going to be on a dirty job site. My dad loved watching Jet and Bomber games with Jason at home and this last year they had an opportunity to go to a few Jet games together. My dad always supported Jason in everything he did. Dad was still going to Jason’s hockey games even this last winter when Jason was playing at the MTS Iceplex. Dad would cheer Jason on like he was still his 10 year old boy who was the best player on the ice. I know one of the things that Jason appreciated about dad was how he always made Randi feel like part of the family. Usually dad would lie about how something bothered him but when he first met Randi he told Randi the coffee she made was “Shit” and this was the beginning of a humorous and sarcastic relationship that they shared. My dad was and is truly proud of Jason and the man he has become. Dad always mentioned what a great dad Jason is and in my fathers eyes that truly is the measure of any man.

One of the parts of his life that he enjoyed the most was with his grandchildren. Keely, Lexi and Sophie were his three little girls. He loved taking them for walks by the creek to look at the ducks, he loved playing in the yard with them, watching them play sports or dance. At Christmas he would put on his Santa hat and read out the presents one by one and watch with joy as they opened each one. It was quite comical to hear dad screw up the names on all the presents as he would hand them out. His girls knew that if something was broken or needed to be built Grandpa was going to build it for them. They always knew Grandpa or Gampa as Sophie would call him would sneak them a chocolate bar, a sip of his coke or have a big bowl of ice cream with them.

He was always about work ethic and helping others out. He never had a bad word to say about anyone. It is these life skills that I take with me and know how they made my Dad into the great man that he was. My Dad always loved his family and he would do anything for us. He worked hard each and everyday to give us everything he could.

Dad, we will always love you for being you. An amazing husband, the best father and grandfather, and devoted friend to all. You will truly be missed and there will not be a day that we won’t think about you. We will take care of Princess Milly!! Rest in peace Dad. I love you.