Gladys Palahniuk Speaks on her Creative Life

Gladys Palahniuk Speaks on her Creative Life

Rosanne Fortier News Correspondent

Gladys Palahniuk is a resident of Vegreville who was born in 1942 in Myrnam where she grew up on a farm with five sisters and five brothers.

“I was the middle child. We did our own thing because our mother was always busy having children. But the older kids used to look after the younger kids. We didn’t have much money but there was always lots of food on the table and clean clothing for us to wear. Our mother sewed all our clothing and they weren’t anything fancy but they were actually very nice.

Also, we didn’t have any toys and we used to find ways to entertain ourselves. We used to play hockey on the pond and would find something frozen to use as a puck. In the summertime, we would play ball. I never had a doll, but it didn’t bother me because I didn’t know any difference,” Gladys explained.

Gladys said her earliest memory was when she was seven-years-old and her grandfather passed away. “His body was in our house before they took him to church for the funeral,” Gladys explained.

“Also, when I went to Slawa School for three years, I didn’t know how to speak English; I only knew how to speak Ukrainian and the teacher wasn’t happy with me. He would always point this out to me and say, ‘no Ukrainian, no Ukrainian’. He used a pointer all the time but he never really hit me with it.

Then when I entered Grade three, we were bussed to Myrnam School where I went to school until I graduated from Grade 12. We were four miles from school. I had older brothers going to school and we used a horse and buggy to go to school in the summertime and a horse and a sled in the wintertime.”

Mathematics was Glady’s favourite subject at school because she did well with this course.

Then in Grade seven, she made it onto the girls’ baseball team and she played centerfield. In Grade 10, she was the coach.

After Glady was finished school, her sister and brother-in-law were living in Vegreville and they had a photo studio which was called, Ernie’s Photo Studio. “They needed some help so I came to work for them and helped in the studio. At that time, there was no coloured film. So, my sister and I were painting wedding pictures by hand. This was hard because we had to get the natural colours of the people’s hair and clothing. I worked for them for two years because then I met my husband and got married.

The first time I met my husband I was in Grade nine and I was volunteering at this little country hall at Slawa. We used to have these perogy suppers and dances. While there, a couple of carloads of people came in from Vegreville. My cousin was one of them and Victor (my future husband) was a friend of my cousin. My cousin then introduced us. At the time, I didn’t think too much because I was 15 and he was 25. Then when I moved to Vegreville, I connected with Victor again and I thought he was a handsome looking guy. We started dating eventually. We got married and our marriage was very good.

Victor worked for Alberta Liqueur Control Board. I stayed home and I met some people who went to the same church as we did. This lady had a dress shop and she heard about my sewing and she asked me to do alterations for her shop. After that, people go to know about my sewing and I did my first wedding party, and then I did sewing for a lot of wedding parties; I did a lot of bridesmaid dresses, Ukrainian costumes, and dance costumes. Then my husband and I had a son, we named himJohn-Michael, and later, we had a daughter we named Maria. So, I stayed home with my children and did sewing for other people until they went to school, and then I went out working at Stedman’s for about 15 years. I worked for about 12 years at Vegreville Floral Boutique and then I worked for Flowers by Sheryl. My favorite job was working at VegrevilleFloral Boutique because the place was beautiful and they had such unique and elegant gifts for sale. I was also taught how to make floral arrangements and the people I worked for were very nice over there.

Gladys was married for 49 and a half years before her husband, Victor passed away. She said their marriage was very good. “We were always very busy and I enjoyed being married. We did a lot of volunteering for the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The advice I would give young couples is to always work together, discuss things all the time, and never go to bed angry. Love each other and always have communication.”

Today, Gladys has two grandchildren, Mitchell and Mara. She is very proud of her children and grandchildren as they turned out well and have good jobs. Her senior years can be lonely sometimes since her husband passed away eight years ago. They used to do almost everything together. But her health is good, and she keeps busy volunteering for the community of Vegreville.

Glady’s advice about life is to enjoy what you are doing and live life to the fullest. She has no wishes for the future and is just taking one day at a time.