Yaroslav Sokolik
Yaroslav Sokolik was born in 1925 in the spring, the joyful month of April. And that’s what he was: joyful, humorous, full of energy, initiative. He loved music, sports, company, movement, traveling, traveling.
He was a gentleman, sincere, truthful, patient, delicate. At work, he was a “workaholic”. Whether in the office or in the garden, no matter what he did, work was in full swing.
He loved our sons, and then grandchildren, infinitely, they were priceless treasures for him. He played with them, taught them how to push seeds into the ground and spread them, how to take care of plants. He taught them to be dutiful, sincere, truthful. He did not tolerate lies and falsehood.
We lived with my parents. Every Saturday he took my mother to the market so that she wouldn’t have to lug shopping bags herself. On Sundays he took my father fishing and he learned how to fish himself, but putting a worm on a hook was torture for him… That’s how I remember him… And then he took two of us — my father and our writer friend Fedor Odrach. We would sit by the river, far away from each other, hypnotized by floats… and, God forbid, talk loudly…
He ran after the ball as a young man, was a football player. He had not lived in Canada for a whole year when he was selected from the Ukrainian team to the Ontario representative team in interprovincial competitions with Quebec. At that time we didn’t know each other yet. We met at the Plast.
Yaroslav, although he worked on a farm under a contract, came to Toronto, gathered the guys, organized a barracks of the St. George Scouts. All the older scouts and scouts knew him, because he was one of the first of our immigrants to get a driving license and drove everyone to camps and meetings in a truck. He got the truck for work, he used it to deliver groceries. He was an educator, the head of the scout village, the commandant of the novice camp “Zoreplavtsi”, where the novices fired a rocket during the morning prayer, and on a historic night, wrapped in blankets, watched as astronauts first stepped out of the capsule onto the moon and walked on it…
While working as a student in Oshawa during the summer, at the request of the CYM, he organized a summer camp for them.
When they bought the St. Nicholas Church, he helped put in the boards for the knelt… He made himself a desk, which is still in his room today.
Elected as the head of the UCC in Toronto (1984-1994), he initiated the idea of building a monument to the Holodomor, and not on Ukrainian territory, but somewhere in the city, so that the world would know.
Member of the Sports Society “Ukraine”, member and head of the Society of Ukrainian Engineers of Canada (SUC), head of the Canadian Association of Professional Engineers of Ontario (APEO), in 1986 — founder and first head of the Civil Rights Commission of the UCC, one of the founders of Black Ribbon Day, for 5 years he was the general secretary of the UWC, head of the Brotherhood of Ukrainian Catholics (BUK) of the Eastern Diocese… etc.… etc.… Full of energy, movement. He was everywhere, but his family was the most important thing.
He lived in Ukraine, visited it after 1991 annually. At one of the first meetings with Leonid Kravchuk, the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, and his advisors, there was a conversation about inviting Kravchuk to Canada. A chain of social acquaintances helped. Slavko, the head of the UCC Toronto, turned to Dr. Dmytro Tsipivnyk, the head of the UCC in Canada, who knew Ramon Hnatyshyn personally. And in a short time, the Governor General of Canada, R. Hnatyshyn, invited L. Kravchuk to Canada.
Professionally, Yaroslav began his studies at Ryerson University, in the mechanical engineering department. His talent was there, and then his labor with love. He supplemented his studies at the university. He was alone, paid for his studies and life by working on Saturdays and Sundays and during summer vacations. He traveled by train to Winnipeg there and back and washed dishes in the kitchen.
He started his career with a ruler and a pencil at Link Belt, and graduated as a chief engineer. He was invited to teach business management at Humber College, then he was a technology advisor at the National Research Council of Canada.
Remembering all this, I think: was he ever at home? I don’t know how he managed, but he was a master, knew how to direct everything in the house, help, and still had time for magazines, a book, and his favorite golf.
He received many awards and medals, such as the medal of the Governor of Canada R. Hnatyshyn on the occasion of the 125th anniversary of Canada. He hid all these awards in a drawer of his desk.
It was our more than 60 years of happy coexistence in a partnership of duties, public work, surprises in life, sadness and joy.
Eternal memory to you, Slavka! You deserve to rest in peace by the Eternal Fire…
Oksana Bryzgun-Sokolyk
