Obituary of PAUL MACIJUK

PAUL MACIJUK

December 22, 1922 - March 22, 2019

A heart of gold stopped beating

Paul’s hard working hands went to rest

It is with heartfelt sadness that we announce the peaceful passing of Paul Macijuk at the age of 96 years. Pavlo was a husband, Dad, Tato, Grandfather, Didi, Great Grandfather and friend to many. Left to cherish his memory is his loving and devoted wife of 71 years, Stefania, children Bill (Jackie), Peter (Teresa) and Lucy (Steve); grandchildren Greg (Tracy), Jaclyn (Sheldon), Tania (Mark), Peter Jr., Tessa (Eric) and Brooks and great grandchildren Keely, Lucas, Erica and Emily.

Tato was born on December 22, 1922 on a small farm by the village of Dowhè in the province of Volyn, located in Ukraine. At a young age, Paul learned the meaning of hard work by working alongside his father on the farm. This included cutting down trees for firewood, tending to livestock, harvesting, repairing fences by only using crude chisels and hammers to carve out tongue and groove to hold the wood together.  With all these skills, he helped his father build a house which still stands today.

At the age of 18, during the Second World War, Dad left home to work on a farm in Germany. It was in Germany after the war when he was a shoemaker that he met the love of his life, Stefi. Together they went to Rochdale, England where Dad worked in the coal mines.

In 1952, the family of three, Dad, Mom, and Bill successfully travelled to Canada on the ship Atlantic to Halifax and then onwards to Winnipeg by train. 

Without knowing the language, Dad was able to find a roof over their heads and secure a job as a labourer fixing roofs with Aetna Roofing. The owner quickly saw Dad’s sharp mind and hardworking ethics and promoted him to Roof Supervisor within two years. In 1961, Dad was promoted to Superintendent and then to Field Superintendent with responsibilities for coordinating and planning of the entire field production for western Canada including Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver.

During those early years, Dad had worked on the construction of the roofs of many buildings in Winnipeg. These included hospitals, churches, shopping centers as well as the Centennial Concert Hall, the Planetarium dome, and Rainbow Stage to name a few. Of significant importance to Dad was that he personally secured all the crosses on the very top of the Holy Trinity Ukrainian Orthodox Metropolitan Cathedral on Main Street. His achievements spanned 32 years with Aetna Roofing.

Activities Dad enjoyed were fishing, bowling, planting trees, picking mushrooms, playing cards, talking with friends over coffee, driving and travelling. One of Dad’s greatest passions was wood working, building bird houses, chairs, benches and a wishing well for each of his three children. He loved cleaning, preparing and creating wooden items out of diamond willow. Part of that joy was searching and finding the driftwood on the banks of Lake Winnipeg at Camp Veselka. It was a difficult wood to work with but Dad had the patience and the perseverance until he got it right. 

Later, Dad started drawing up and putting plans together for their new house. He supervised the building of the house and made sure that everything was done correctly. It was his dream home and it was and still is a beautiful home built properly.

After working hard all week, Dad and Mom loved to go dancing. They got dressed, Dad in his suit and Mom in her gown and went to meet friends and would dance, dance, dance.

Dad truly loved to tell jokes and whenever the family visited, Dad would say, I have a joke for you. Dad was very personable and was asked to be master of ceremonies for many weddings and at the annual Aetna Roofing Christmas parties for many years.

Dad enjoyed working outside in the backyard helping Mom with her flowers and their vegetable garden. He loved going to the cottage and working on projects like building rock gardens or expanding the cottage. Craftsmen would see his work and say that it was built with love, that it was done so well and that it would last a century. Even in his 80s, he would climb trees and go up on the roof to inspect it. He was amazing.

He was also a wise man. He knew a lot about history, geography, governments and current world affairs. He could converse in several languages. He taught his family the value of hard work and he was always able to come up with a solution to any problem. Dad had tremendous patience in teaching others. For example, how to  build birdhouses, hammer nails and make precise saw cuts to wood. He also taught us the importance of a good, solid handshake.

He had a way about him that made people smile. Dad was a smart, reliable, hard working, honest, selfless, caring and generous father. A man who was extremely proud of his wife, Stefi and his family. He was the pillar of our family and he will be missed.

As per Dad’s wishes, a private family funeral was held on April 6, 2019.   

Pallbearers were Steve and Brooks Peterson, Bill and Greg Macijuk, Peter Sr. and Peter Jr. Macijuk and Eric Holodryga.  Honorary pallbearers were Lucas Macijuk, John Stepaniuk, Sheldon Thiessen and Mark Pomehichuk.

Dad will always lovingly be remembered by these three words…

“Keep On Smiling”