Mr. Wasyl Kokodyniak

Obituary

On January 1st 2020, Wasyl Kokodyniak passed away peacefully in his sleep at the age of 94 at St. Joseph's Health Centre after complications from a brief battle with pneumonia, despite having made good progress towards a successful recovery from a serious fall on November 13th 2019. Predeceased by his beloved wife Helen, his father Ivan, his mother Katerina, and his sister Stefania. Wasyl is survived by his sister Darka Truchym (Slavko) in Staryi Sambir, Ukraine, and Wasyl's two sons Gerry and Boris in Toronto. Wasyl was born in the village of Bylychi, Lvivska Oblast, Ukraine on August 25th, 1925. His father Ivan was a beekeeper, and had went to France in the inter-war period to train as a gardener and carried on that profession during the Soviet occupation of Ukraine in the local Collective Farm. Wasyl was pursuing an education to be a teacher when World War II broke out. He narrowly escaped being deported to the Soviet East when the Soviets decided to arrest and deport his fellow students. He was warned by a teacher and managed to escape that fate. He was a veteran of the 1st Ukrainian Division "Galicia" of the Ukrainian National Army. He was a survivor of the disastrous Battle of Brody of summer 1944. After the War, he ended up in a Displaced Person Camp in Austria. He immigrated to Canada in 1948. When in Canada, he initially worked on a farm in the Georgetown area and eventually ended up in Toronto working various jobs from St. Joseph's Hospital to Campbell Soup Company to ACME Screw and Gear. Eventually he ended up working at Massey Ferguson as a machinist for the majority of his working life. In Toronto he met and married his wife Helen Hishchynsky in 1958. They had two sons Gerry and Boris -- raised as Ukrainian Catholics proud of their Ukrainian heritage. They both obtained advanced degrees in engineering. He purchased a family home in the Bloor West Village in 1962 where he had resided for 57 years and raised a family. Many summers included visits to Helen's family in Ontario and Alberta and vice-versa which included several memorable cross Canada train and car trips. In the early 1990's Wasyl discovered he had a sister Darka he never knew about -- born in early 1945. After a search he was able to reconnect with his sister and actually went to Ukraine with his son Gerry in 1994 to meet her in person for the first time. It was an emotional journey and he got to visit his parents' graves and visit the house he was born and raised in. His wife Helen suffered with kidney disease and he had taken care of his wife during her illness. In 1989 he flew to Germany with his wife to seek treatments for her kidney disease. He lost his beloved wife in 1998 (after nearly 40 years of marriage) due to complications from the kidney transplant. During the EuroMaidan Revolution in Ukraine in 2013/2014 he watched the events unfold live via a computer set up in the living room of the house. He enjoyed talking politics, especially Ukrainian politics, with his dear departed friends and in-laws. He has surviving family on his side in Lviv & Staryi Sambir Ukraine and his wife's side in Greater Toronto, Orillia, Hamilton, & Calgary Canada. Donations, in lieu of flowers, in Wasyl's memory can be made to the "Ukrainian Canadian Research and Documentation Centre", "Ukrainian Youth Ensembles" or a charity of your choice. Vichnaya Pamyat (Forever Remembered).

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