Mrs. Valentyna Petrenko

Obituary

Valentyna  was born in Myrhorod, Poltava Oblast, Ukraine on June 4, 1923. She was the first child of Yevdakim and Marpha Lobatsch (nee Bowkun). Her brother Vladislaw (deceased) was born in December the following year. Her parents were well educated for the times, her mother being a school teacher and her father an agronomist responsible for development of strains of hogs at the large agricultural institute in Myrhorod. These were the years following the Russian Revolution of 1917 and Ukraine’s first Declaration of Independence in 1918. They were heady years as the new Republic struggled for survival and Valentyna’s father was in the midst of it working with Symon Petlyura, responsible for the Ukraine’s military secretariat throughout those tumultuous years. It was all over by 1922 when the newly-formed Soviet Union once again took over. We can only imagine the dinner table conversations as Valentyna was growing up but she had to be steeped in the new awareness for a reborn Ukrainian nationalism for which they had struggled so hard and lost as the Russians took back control. Those had to be the best years of her childhood because soon after Ukraine was to experience the terrors of Stalin’s rule. Her family survived the Holodomor from 1932-33 when over 6,000,000 Ukrainians perished from Stalin’s forced famine. But the nightmare had only begun, because Stalin then ordered that those that had survived and might still threaten his oppression to be “eliminated”. That included the educated, those that had actively participated in Ukraine’s first bid for independence and anyone else that inconveniently got in the way of the new Communist utopia. His murderous henchmen arrived at Valentyna’s home one night in 1936 and as the 13 year old hid trembling under her bed with her brother, her father was led away never to be seen again. The family persevered and somehow, in the midst of this she completed 10 years of schooling, then deemed the equivalent of secondary school, and enrolled in medical studies which she began in Kharkiv. Soon after, in 1941 the Germans invaded Ukraine and as transportation networks had collapsed, Valentyna walked over 200 km to reunite with her mother and brother in Myrhorod. The journey had only just begun. She met and married Petro Petrenko who was to be her partner for the next 75 years. As the Germans were pushed back by the Red Army in 1943-44, her family, like so many Ukrainians followed, to escape life under communism. They walked the 1500+kms to Germany. There they survived the allied bombardment in the final year of war. She lost her firstborn son during that time. Her second son Victor was born in 1946. Her joy was again fleeting with the anguishing loss of her mother Marpha who had survived Stalin and the war only to die suddenly in 1947 in Germany at the age of 57. Their good fortune was that they were in an American sector of Germany at the end of the war and avoided deportation back to the USSR. Instead, they were accepted as displaced persons for passage to Australia, crossing post war Europe to Italy and then sailing through the Suez ultimately arriving in Adelaide, South Australia in 1948. The family had found some peace at last. They lived on a farm in a small home in beautiful fruit orchards. Petro was the hired man and learned to run a dairy farm. Valentyna picked and sorted fruit and did everything she could to contribute to the family’s survival. During this period they were also able to track down friends and relatives who, like them, had escaped Stalin’s persecution. Many of them had emigrated from Germany to Canada and most were in Toronto. The urge to reunite began to grow. In 1950 her daughter, Natalia was born. By 1954 they had scraped together enough to buy passage to Canada and the family of now 4 sailed from Sydney landing in Vancouver on Dec 5, 1954. A long train trip across this wonderous land that was to be their new home brought them to Toronto where they were reunited with Valentyna’s brother Vladislaw, her girlhood best fried Maria Stepura and many others from Myrhorod. This is where their new life began in earnest. Work wherever they could find it and a fortunate purchases of a 10 acre parcel of land here in Oakville in 1955 resulted in an offer the following year for 15x the purchase price. They couldn’t afford to turn it down. That enabled them ultimately to buy a dairy farm in Dunnville Ontario in 1957. Petro had gained the experience in Australia to do this. They also had chosen wisely, acquiring land that was suitable for market gardening as well as supporting dairy cattle. Valentyna worked side by side with Petro, 18hrs a day 7 days a week. She did everything from milking and feeding cattle, to growing, picking and packing tomatoes, corn, strawberries and anything else that would grow and could be sold for an income to pay the mortgages and support the family.  And in the remaining  waking hours she fed us all 3 hot meals a day, kept our clothes washed and our home clean. And did I mention that somewhere along the way she also fed her hobby of needle work, embroidering many pieces that are framed and hung around her home and ours. She had seen and experienced too much to be intimidated by hard work! In 1959 her second surviving son Yuri, was born. By now Natalia at 9 years old could provide some of the support Valetyna needed to look after the new arrival. Farm work didn’t take a vacation because a new child had arrived. They worked hard and built a good life. In 2010 she began exhibiting early signs of dementia. By 2015 she was no longer able to maintain her household or care for herself and her husband and became a resident of the Ukrainian Canadian Care Centre in Toronto. She progressively withdrew into herself finding solace in sleep and dreams. We hope they were sweet ones. Although lost in dementia she recognized her children and called them by name as recently as one week before her passing. On October 6^th she joined us in the Care Centre dining room where we shared fresh fruit and a piece of her daughter-in-law’s birthday cake. She loved cake and baking had been another one of her passions. She blew us all kisses as we parted on that day. Throughout the week she began refusing care. Clearly her time was near. She was in her 96^th year. Each of us, Natalia, Victor and George spent 8-10 hours with her on Monday October 15. At 11:41pm the angels took her away. She went peacefully offering no resistance. Although Petro wore the pants, Valentyna wore the boss pants. Her spirit and boundless energy never flickered. She taught us values: to never lie, cheat or steal; to respect our parents; to gain an education; to be independent; to remember who we are and where we came from; to love each other, our Church and Ukraine; and to hate Communists and Russians in no particular order. That last sentiment being perhaps not politically correct today, but given her experiences, understandable. She is survived by her husband Petro also in his 96^th year and one day younger than Valentyna; her 3 children, Victor, Natalia  and Yuri; 2 daughters-in law, Marika and Monica; 3 grandchildren, Sophia, Christian and Sarah; and one great grandson, Jack. We loved her and she loved us. We will miss her terribly. Her memory will stay with us forever. May she have Eternal peace.

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