ELO, Eva –
On July 9, 1926, our mother was born in Whitemouth, Manitoba, 100 kilometers east of Winnipeg. She was the youngest of the six children born to Nellie (or Nettie) and Nicholas Rusnick. Her siblings were Mary, Doris, Anne, Bill and Olga.
In the 1920s, Whitemouth was a pretty cold and remote place. Soon after our mom was born, our grandmother figured that out and moved to a house on Franklin Street in Toronto. In the 1930s, our grandfather was killed in a rare car accident and mom left school before finishing grade 9 to help support the family. She worked in factories, sometimes, as she later learned, making nefarious products, but she helped out as best she could.
While living on Franklin, she met my father, Robert, and they courted for about 5 years before they married in 1950. They lived with our Italian grandparents, (nonno and nonna) for the first months of their marriage. It was a noisy and energetic household and she loved that part of it, though living in close quarters was not the best. But she loved the food and told us often about how our grandmother used to cook huge pots of macaroni and meatballs for the large family. (They didn’t call it pasta back then!)
Not long after their marriage, mom and dad were able to move into their first house on Nairn Avenue , built by our grandfather’s construction company. In 1951, Patrick was born and in 1953, Susie. Mom learned to cook Italian food because if she had not, her mother-in-law would have been forever delivering meals to feed our dad. She was an indefatigable house cleaner. As children, we were spotlessly cleaned and dressed.
Our mom was literally stunning. Tall, slim and dark, she had a taste for good clothes and wore them well. She was a practiced and elegant ballroom dancer, and her love of dancing was of course was shared by our father. Their courtship flourished on the dance floor of the Palais Royale. In her youth Sunnyside Pool was a regular destination in the company of friends. She never formally trained in athletics, but her swimming stroke was strong and graceful.
We lived in several houses, including in an apartment block with our Ukrainian aunt and uncle, Bill and Stella, and their daughter Debbie. Soon after we all moved out of that apartment, our family fell on difficult times because our father’s business went bankrupt and we had to move in with our Ukrainian grandmother, Nellie – or noonoo as we called all of our grandparents by that time. This period was very hard on our family but dad worked tirelessly to build a new life in real estate and within three years we moved to our house on Kuhl Avenue in Etobicoke.
Mom was very excited to be in her own house and it was here that she developed her interest and talent for gardening. She hired a Japanese gardener who designed the whole backyard, single-handedly lifting huge stones to make a waterfall garden in the back corner. She continued to cook and clean and wear beautiful clothes, some of them made for her by a designer named Zoey, who in time established her own design shop in Yorkville.
In 1975, our father died at the age of 53. Another terrible period for our family.
During dad’s last years, mom had begun working at a card shop and now that income was essential. She moved out of the house into her apartment on Widdicombe Hill but she realized that her small salary was not going to carry her for long. Our cousin, Bill Rudyk, suggested she apply at the Post Office to be a mail sorter; in order to get that job, she had to memorize all of the postal codes across the country! With Patrick’s help, she did just that and passed the test. We still have a copy of the workbook that guided her in the effort!
Not long after she began work at Gateway, mom tired of having to rely on someone to drive her there so she took on another huge challenge and learned to drive. Not only that, but she learned on our father’s Oldsmobile Toronado – a huge tank of a vehicle. But, again, she succeeded.
Over the years, mom enjoyed helping both of us with our house purchases and especially loved gardening at our homes. When her grandson, Robert, was born, she was thrilled and she loved to babysit on her days off work. When Robert was 5 and Susie and Gordon moved to BC, she travelled there to visit and, once again, to garden. She would spend whole days in that huge garden, almost forcibly having to be brought into the house to eat!
In 2000, mom recognized she was wasting money on rent and she bought her condo on Parkwest Place in Mississauga. As one would expect, the place was tastefully decorated, with Oriental flare, and kept spotless, even until her very last days. And even though in her later years she was reluctant to have people visit, she loved it when they made it through the door and everyone enjoyed her lively and often funny conversation.
We will miss you, mom.
Resting at NEWEDIUK FUNERAL HOME, KIPLING CHAPEL, 2058 Kipling Avenue (North of Rexdale Boulevard) on Saturday, September 25, 2021 from 10 a.m. until service time at 11 a.m. Interment Mount Hope Cemetery. Online condolences at newediukfuneralhome.com
Read Less
Friday September 17th 2021
Nos plus sincères sympathies à la famille et aux amis de Eva Elo Friday September 17th 2021..
Décès pour la Ville:Etobicoke, Province: Ontario