Olga Pawluk: 100 Years

On January 9, 2009, Olga Pawluk celebrated her 100^th Birthday. If you ask her the secret of her long life, she will answer with one word: “walking”. Recently, the Canada Revenue Agency (tax department) was concerned because it appeared she had two different dates for her birthday - December 27 and January 9. She was born Olga Geraimchuk in Kodnia near Zhitomyr, Ukraine, when it was a part of the Russian Empire. Russia then used the Julian calendar which made her birthday January 9 which she preferred over December 27, the date it would be according to the Gregorian calendar used in North America. She preferred the Julian date because it made her younger.

She escaped with her family from the Communist terror, collectivization and probable exile in Siberia, and came to Winnipeg in 1928. In Canada, she married Stephen Pawluk. She survived the WW II German bombing of London, reading for a year in The British Museum. She cooperated with Lord Gaskell and Lancelot Lawton occasionally translating passages. She was in England because her husband Stephen was an electronics expert in the Royal Air Force and was working on the secret and important development of radar. Stephen Pawluk had been a President of the Ukrainian National Youth Federation in Toronto.

After the War, they returned to live in Toronto where Olga became active in Branch 360 of the Royal Canadian Legion. She was active in the Ukrainian community and was the main organiser of three Ukrainian Music Festivals in the 1950s. She has an excellent memory and is very clever and intelligent.

About 50 relatives and friends gathered to celebrate her centennial birthday on three occasions: on Sviatyj Vechir, at the Mandarin Restaurant (where the whole restaurant joined in to sing “Happy Birthday”) and at church. She received greetings from Queen Elizabeth II, the Governor General Michalle Jean, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Premier of Ontario Dalton McGuinty, and her local Member of Parliament Borys Wrzesnewskyj. A special church service was held at St. Volodymyr Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral with Archbishop Yuri of Toronto (and Eastern Canada) and Rev. Bohdan Senciw officiating. The Archbishop presented a special certificate to Mrs. Pawluk from Metropolitan John, Head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada (in Winnipeg).