Nancy Anastasia Hawrelak: Author. Community organizer. Farmer. Ukrainian-Canadian. Born May 5, 1928, in Andrew, Alta.; died Dec. 18, 2018, in Edmonton, of complications from hip surgery; aged 90.
Nancy Hawrelak.The Globe and Mail
Nancy Tulick grew up in a two-room farmhouse with no electricity or running water. She was the middle child of 11 children and her family lived in a farm community started during the first wave of Ukrainian immigration to Western Canada. It was a truly humble background that didn’t always sit well with her. Nancy was taken out of high school to care for her younger siblings during her mother’s extended illness. It took the intervention of a high-school teacher to get her back on track and into stenography school and work in Edmonton. Nancy always had bigger dreams and would fulfill them later in life.
Nancy met Nick Hawrelak at a country dance in 1948. Nick was playing in the band and as soon as he spotted Nancy, he asked his bandmates to cover him for one song – he was going to “take his future wife to dance.” They married in 1949, and in a few years were able to take over Nick’s family farm. With their three children, Brian, Jacalyn and Sharon, the family settled into farm life. They raised livestock and tended a large prize-winning vegetable garden. Nancy sewed most of her children’s clothes, including suits she needed for work as the school’s secretary and glorious party dresses. On Saturdays the house had to be cleaned from top to bottom, and she made her kids skate on towels along the floors to shine the waxed linoleum. She insisted that the children excel in school and supported them through university. Money was not plentiful, though Nancy often talked about the abundance in their lives, and there was no sense the family lacked for much.
She embraced her Ukrainian descent, cooking traditional holiday meals with up to 30 people in the farmhouse (just Nancy’s siblings with their kids numbered 45). Traditions were important, but not slavishly so. When the local church service was only given in the Slavonic language, she and Nick temporarily took the family to the United Church.
Nancy and Nick volunteered tirelessly in their community, including work with the Agricultural Society and 4-H clubs (dairy, beef, garden) for the kids. Nancy sat on historical and cultural boards and she managed the Ukrainian historical village at Shandro. Nancy was also an eager political volunteer, becoming a member of Deputy Prime Minister Don Mazankowski’s riding executive, through which she met Prime Ministers Joe Clark and Brian Mulroney. At home, she prominently displayed photos of herself with dignitaries.
Nancy discovered a talent for writing in her late 40s and she began reporting and writing columns for local papers in St. Paul, Two Hills and Vegreville. At 70, she wrote Breaking Ground (Willow Press) in 1998, historical fiction about a family of Ukrainian pioneers. It was one of her proudest achievements.
She loved a good party, to dance, to play cards (and cheat) and she loved her family, especially her grandchildren. She always made perogies for them and held paska and bird-bun making sessions until she was 89. Nancy never considered herself to be old until her 90th birthday party last year. Then she said, “I’m old,” like it just dawned on her.
Jacalyn Hamilton is Nancy’s daughter. Brian Hawrelak is Nancy’s son.
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