Obituary
Anne Chipeniuk, nee Anna Kalewaski, was born near Thorhild, Alberta on 1922 January 15 to first-generation immigrants to Canada from the region near the City of Chortkiv, then in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. She grew up on the family farm in an era when heat came from a wood stove, light came from kerosene lamps, and horses provided most local transportation. Nevertheless, she excelled in school and became a lifelong learner and reader. She was fluently bilingual in English and Ukrainian but always self-identified as Canadian and embraced the transformations of progress.
In February 1943, Anne married Peter Chipeniuk, also of Thorhild. While Peter served in the Canadian Army during World War II and was stationed mainly at a remote post at the north coast of Vancouver Island, Anne worked at a sawmill in Vancouver. After the war, the two of them moved to a quarter-section near Thorhild, clearing land and farming at the same time as Peter worked on the Northern Alberta Railroad. After the birth of their first son, Ray, they moved to Clairmont, in the Alberta Peace River district, and then Bon Accord, near Edmonton. Their second son, Ken, was born in Bon Accord. In 1953 the family moved to Edmonton, where Anne lived ever since, raising her sons, working in a variety of jobs, and enjoying her many friendships and volunteer work.
Anne especially enjoyed life with her husband, children and grandchildren and also the close relationships with her relatives and friends and their families. She fondly told tales of life on the farm, even of stooking and cooking for the threshing crews. She made the best pyrohy you could imagine! She also enjoyed travel to many parts of the world and parties with family and friends and especially a good game of bingo or canasta.
Her memory lives on in her sons Ray and Ken and their wives Sonya Sawchuk and Debbie Graham; and in her grandchildren Alison Chipeniuk and Karsten Chipeniuk, and his wife Maria, and Debbie’s son Ross. Just weeks before she died, Anne had the immense pleasure of holding her newborn great-grandson, Damian.
Anne Chipeniuk died of old age at Shepherd’s Care at Kensington in Edmonton on Friday, 2017 July 14, over 95 years of age, the last of her parents’ living children.
