Mr. and Mrs. Paul and Luba Racicot

Obituary

Paul Edward Racicot                                                          Luba Mary Racicot (Lewicka)

November 20, 1949 – June 2, 2023                                     September 12, 1950 – June 6, 2023

It is with deep sorrow that the family announce the passing of our adored father and grandfather (‘Gido’), Paul Edward Racicot, age 73, of Toronto, Ontario on June 2 2023 after a brief illness. Sadly, just four days later on June 6 2023 our beloved mother and grandmother (‘Baba’), Luba Mary Racicot, age 72, of Toronto, Ontario was overcome with grief and passed away from sudden cardiac arrest, a truly “broken heart”.

Paul Edward Racicot was born on November 20, 1949 to Henry Edward Racicot and Donalda Jean Racicot in Toronto, Ontario. Luba Mary Racicot was born on September 12, 1950 to Wasyl Katysnsky and Sophia Katynsky in Germany and they immigrated to Canada when Luba was just 5 years old settling in Toronto, Canada.

In 1973, Paul and Luba met while working at Hardy’s, Paul as a salesman and Luba as a secretary.  They were very much in love and often shared stories of how they would walk into work holding hands together.  They married 9 months later and were about to celebrate 49 years of marriage at the end of June.  Luba went on to work at Canada Post and later retired from her career as a postal clerk.  Paul went on to work for CN Rail and after further schooling trained to become a locomotive engineer for VIA Rail until his retirement on August 31 2014. Paul and Luba are survived by three children, Robert, Victoria (David) and Natalie and their four grandchildren, Olivia, Benjamin, Jack and Owen.

As emigrants from Ukraine, Luba and her parents were profoundly proud of their Ukrainian heritage and celebrated their heritage through traditional foods (borscht, patychky, pyrohy, kapusta, cabbage rolls etc.), speaking the language in the home, through celebrating Ukrainian Christmas on January 7^th or through Ukrainian Easter traditions. After marrying and during their life together, Paul embraced the Ukrainian culture, challenged himself to speak Ukrainian with Luba’s parents (Слава Україні!: Slava Ukraïni!), proudly displayed his adopted Ukrainian culture through flags adorning their vehicle and Ukrainian ball hats for wearing proudly around Bloor West village. The grandchildren will forever remember Paul as ‘Gido’ and Luba as ‘Baba’.

Paul and Luba were loving parents and grandparents and spending time with family and celebrating life’s moments together was so greatly important to them. They were engaged grandparents and enjoyed doing fun things with their grandkids, were always purchasing treats and little knick-knacks for their grandkids and delighted in their joy and excitement. Although they have left us too soon and before we were ready to say Goodbye, they leave us with fond loving memories of them. As each day goes by, they are deeply loved and dearly missed.

As the family has such a close connection to St. Joseph’s Health Centre in Toronto and with their pride in their Ukrainian heritage, in lieu of flowers please send donations to St. Joseph’s Health Centre Foundation https://supportstjoes.ca/ or the Canada-Ukraine Foundation https://www.cufoundation.ca/.

Visitation

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Cremation