John Kaczmar

The funeral service will be held in the Grenfell Community Hall, Grenfell, SK on Friday, September 29, 2017 at 2:00 p.m. with Shirley Schlamp officiating. Cremation with interment in Grenfell Cemetery.

John was predeceased by his first wife Hazel in 2011 and his father Alex Kaczmar. He is survived by his wife Martha; his mother Elizabeth Kaczmar, two daughters Val Kaczmar and her son Cody Gorniak; Shar Kaczmar and her children Dusty and Rayel Kaczmar, one brother Henry (Karen) Kaczmar, one sister Ann (Larry) Dimler and their families; three step children: Raymond (Tera) Lichacz and their daughter Breigh; Ryan Lichacz (Dori), Lynn Lichacz (Sean) and her family Mattius and Noah and numerous nieces and nephews.

In lieu of flowers, if friends so desire contributions may be made to the Canadian cancer Society, 1910 McIntyre Street, Regina, SK S4P 2R3 as tokens of remembrance.

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Eulogy as given by Ann Dimler:

Thank you all so much for attending this celebration of life for my brother John. I am honoured to be chosen to do this eulogy for him.

John was born on February 18, 1949 to Alex and Elizabeth Kaczmar in Szczecinek, Poland.

John started his education in Poland and got as far as grade 3. In March of 1959, our family of 5, immigrated to Canada, our father and mother, John age 10, Henry age 5 and myself age 2. We boarded our ship, Batory, on March 27th 1959, and sailed across the Atlantic Ocean for 11 days, arriving at Montreal on April 7th. We had to deal with some sea sickness along the way and also had to stay in Montreal a few days longer because John had to be hospitalized because of measles. And so our adventure in Canada began, it wasn’t all easy but well worth coming to this great country. It took a few months to get all settled with taking residence on our Uncle Nick’s farm, which is 10 miles east of Grenfell, and was farmed by my dad and brothers for many years.

When John started school in Canada he had to take his grades 1-3 over again , just so he could learn the English language. Even though this set him back some, he was always a very strong and determined person and could do anything he set his mind to.

I was only 2 years old when we came to Canada and by the time I started school I could speak English quite fluently and I don’t even remember learning it. I guess it’s thanks to my brothers, John and Henry, for speaking English around me at a very young age where I must have picked it up from them. On the other hand, I know that my English grammar isn’t the greatest at times so I guess I can put the blame on them for that!

John grew up on that farm 10 miles east of Grenfell, went to school in Broadview up to grade 8, and helped with the farming operation. He also worked at numerous other jobs off the farm. After being away for 3 years working at a nickel mine in Thompson Manitoba, John came home for a visit with his brand new 1970 blue and white Dodge Coronet which he went all the way to Toronto to purchase. That was quite exciting when he came home with that! He actually was generous enough to let his little sister drive it and I even passed my drivers test with it! This is when John decided to stay home and help with the farming again. He found out that this is his true passion. He was a real farmer at heart and a very successful one at that, growing all kinds of grain and raising livestock. He never missed a Farm Progress Show or Agribition, always interested in the latest technology and innovations happening in the Agriculture Industry. Even when he was already in his hospital bed, he was still just as concerned about his crops as always.

In 1973 John met Hazel Knox and they were married on January 19, 1974, and were blessed with 2 daughters, Val and Shar, who they loved very much and were so proud of. They loved and cherished their 3 grandchildren, Dusty, Rayel and Cody very much and were very proud of them and their accomplishments.

They lived on John’s family farm for a short time before moving to Hazel’s family farm and continued working very hard with the farm operation and accomplished a lot together. John and Hazel enjoyed 37 wonderful years together. On December 2, 2011, John was devastated and his world was drastically changed when his wife Hazel lost her battle with cancer.

Not long after, John found someone to love and share his life with again. On July 31st 2014, John married his second wife Martha. They enjoyed a few happy years together. It was always so funny when they would call each other by their nicknames “Quatchka” and “Courka” (which is duck and chicken in Ukrainian) because John would like to scare Martha going through water without ever getting his feet wet with his quad or truck. He got nicknamed Quatchka because he was like a duck on wheels and Martha’s was Courka because she was chicken of him driving through the deep waters! They enjoyed many days of camping in the summer and going on few hot holidays down south in the winter, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, a Caribbean Cruise and Vegas. John also loved hunting, fishing, going for sight seeing drives and tours and shopping! (yes there actually was a man who liked shopping, would you believe).

John was a very kind, loving and generous man who was fun loving and adventurous and always willing to lend a helping hand. John believed in God and loved hearing his word each Sunday on the church programs on TV and received Jesus as his Saviour many years ago. John was very hospitable and loved when someone came to visit and loved spending time with family and friends. He hardly ever missed the morning coffee with all his buddies at the coffee shop. I’m sure it’s just not quite the same there without him.

John was always quite the jokester. One day my husband Larry was helping John with pregnancy checking some cows. As they were running the cows through the chute, a steer happened to run in the chute. The vet checked him and said, “this one’s open” which means it’s not pregnant! The guys had a good laugh about that. John thought the joke was on the vet but in the end it was on John because he got charged for preg checking a steer!

John was always a hard worker, beat many obstacles and never gave up. He fought a very valiant battle with cancer. Even after the family was called in to the Regina hospital because the medical team didn’t expect him to make it till morning, he proved what a fighter he was because he did make it till morning plus another month and half longer. Even though there wasn’t much hope of him ever leaving the hospital, he ended up getting a bit better and was able to come home for a month before his passing because his wish was to spend his last days at home.

His wife Martha deserves a lot of credit for taking such good care of him in his last days, as his full time caregiver, because he couldn’t do much for himself anymore. It was a real hard and emotional learning curve for her which she tackled courageously. Thank you so much Martha for sacrificing your time to look after John so well.

John was predeceased by his first wife Hazel,and his father Alex Kaczmar. He is survived by his wife Martha; his mother Elizabeth Kaczmar, two daughters Val Kaczmar and her son Cody Gorniak; Shar Kaczmar and her children Dusty and Rayel Kaczmar, one brother Henry (Karen) Kaczmar, one sister Ann (Larry) Dimler and their families; three stepchildren: Raymond (Tera) Lichacz and their daughter Breigh; Ryan Lichacz (Dori), Lynn Lichacz ( Sean) and her family Mattius and Noah and numerous nieces and nephews.

John was a loving husband, a great father and grandfather, a wonderful brother and brother in law, an uncle, cousin and friend. He will be sadly missed and fondly remembered. Rest easy dear brother, until we meet again.