Obituary of Sonja Pawliw
Sonja (nee Byblow) Pawliw was born on November 17 1927 in Springside Saskatchewan. From the age of 9 she lived with her loving grandparents where she learned valuable life skills of gardening, sewing, looking after farm animals, all the while developing a strong love of nature and art. She spent many summer afternoons by the local creek watching the clouds as they formed themselves into angels, animals, flowers and other imaginations.
On October 13 1947, Sonja was married to her husband of 61 years Fred Pawliw. Together they started building their family, moving to various communities including Wyoming Ontario, Oakshella, and Broadview Sask. They eventually settled into their little yellow home on their family farm near Orcadia, just west of Yorkton.
Sonja always grew a large vegetable garden and spent many hot hours canning, freezing and preserving food for the long winter months. She also cultivated many colorful flowerbeds that provided her with great personal and spiritual joy. Her many creative endeavours included sewing clothing for herself and her 8 beautiful children, machine embroidery, and sketching. She cooked daily hearty meals along with homemade bread and her Ukrainian heritage foods of cabbage rolls and perogies.
Sonja was ahead of her time in the small farming community and by shear determination, taught herself to drive and then got a job in housekeeping at the Yorkton hospital, inspiring her neighborhood women friends to follow suit. That first pay cheque provided a great grocery shopping spree with the kids, buying all those lovely “store bought” foods that previously hadn’t been seen in their home. Many life time friends were made during her years working at the hospital.
Sonja, Fred and the 2 youngest children moved into Yorkton in 1977 where, over the years she built prize winning gardens, becoming known as “Sonja’s Healing Gardens” that were visited by people from all over the world and a couple even got married in the back yard. In 2017 her garden won the distinction of being one of Canadas honorary 150 gardens. She and her gardens were published in Canadian Gardening and Western Gardens magazines including full color multi page articles. Sonja’s passion for gardening won her many awards for best gardens, best flower arrangements and she also shared so many plants and seeds with friends and family around the globe.
Storytelling and poetry also found a special place in her heart. Sonja wrote many stories about her childhood experiences that embodied her traditional Ukrainian cultural celebrations. These stories were published in Folklore Magazine along with her drawings depicting the events in the story. Her poems reflected her spirituality and love of gardening.
The “Gift of Hope” project in 1993 gave Sonja the opportunity to travel to her ancestral home of Ukraine where medical and dental supplies were delivered to the local residents as well as providing orphanages the generosity of the Ukrainian Canadian people. She brought back treasured icons, embroidered fabrics and other special memorabilia for her family.
St Mary’s Ukrainian Catholic Church was always a strong spiritual pillar for Sonja. Well into her senior years, she would be the first at the church in order to open up the doors for the patrons. She received an Honorary Life Time Membership for her more than 60 years of service with the National Eparchial in Saskatoon and local branch UCWL organizations of which she was president for many years. In 2007 Sonja won Yorkton’s Community Recognition award. She frequently had her stories and drawings published in UCWL’S Nasha Doroha.
Sonja was an active member of the Godfrey Dean Art Gallery in Yorkton, participating in annual community art exhibitions. In 2018 she had a one woman show, a retrospective of her artwork spanning at least 7 decades and including numerous disciplines.
In the last few years of her life, gardening and every day chores became a little more difficult for Sonja. She enjoyed her weekly visits with Father Yevhen. One day upon seeing her yard filled with blooming poppies he burst into song. This was a cherished memory for her. Sonja steadfastly remained in her home until a year ago when she made the difficult decision to move to St Basil’s Manor in Regina where she happily lived, always referring to her apartment as her “home”. She was able to attend mass at the St Basil’s chapel. Her two eldest daughters live in Regina and Sonja was grateful to be among her family. Veronica and Judy were equally happy to have their mom close by. She gained a renewed energy after the move, painting and doing glass mosaics through the winter, and even built a miniature rock garden. She also planted some tomato seeds brought with her from Yorkton, as well as a couple potato plants.
Sonja is predeceased by her husband Fred, her parents, her youngest son Bernard, grandsons Seumas McNally and Joshua Sawka, as well as many siblings. She will be so sadly missed by her surviving sisters Olga Achtemichuk and Jeanne Spilak, her children Veronica (David), Thauberger of Regina, Judy Bellamy (Don Modderman) of Regina, Wendy McNally of Toronto, Sharon (Bruce) Pawliw-Barber of Slocan Park BC, Bonnie Schroyer (Tim Reimer) of Nakusp BC, Thomas of Edmonton, Terre (Dan) Ward of Palm Coast Florida. Also in sorrow are her grand and great grand children Jonathan and Christopher Thauberger, Anthony, Cara, Paisley, Avery, and Biatta Sawka, Phillippe McNally, Liam and Alita Barber, Jocelyn and Nicholas Lamon, Darren Morgan, Faith and Ava Flaten, Aaron, Levi, Devin, Parkyr and Alyson Pawliw.
