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Liljana Joan Mech (nee Aniskiewicz), born Oct 1st 1932, older daughter of Slawa Bazarnicka and Ignacy Aniskiewicz. Wife of Dr. Zdzislaw Romuald (Ron) Mech. Mother of Major (retired) Konrad Mech, CD (Kim), Captain (retired) Andre Mech (Susan), and Danuta Wyant (Blaise). Grandmother of Lieutenant (N) Anders Mech (Chelsea), Armand Mech, Eugene Mech, Hilary Wyant, and Faith Wyant.
Lilli was formed by the Eastern European immigrant’s experience of the Dirty 30’s. Born in Toronto in 1932 of a Ukrainian mother and Lithuanian father, she was raised in Toronto’s Grange neighborhood. A true village in the city, children could walk into any neighbor’s door and be assured of being fed while mother was at work. At age 5, Lilli had double mastoid surgery at Toronto Sick Children’s Hospital and never forgot how kind the nurses were. “Hello Lilli, here is your hot milk with sugar.” Lilli’s experience was not the best at Ogden Public School where the teachers were unkind and aggressively critical of their immigrant charges. U of T’s University Settlement was a different story – they ran children’s programs that included singing, dancing, and piano lessons for under-privileged children. These early lessons and support led to Lilli working toward and being awarded ARCT – Associate of Royal Conservatory of Toronto – in piano.
Lilli’s family moved from downtown to North Toronto where she attended North Toronto Collegiate. She was a Miss Murray waitress at Murray’s Restaurant to pay for her ongoing piano studies. In her last year at the Royal Conservatory of Toronto, Glenn Gould was in the next-door studio. After high school, she attended Teacher’s College. She met her husband Ron, studying Medicine at U of T, at a Polish Students Club Halloween Dance, dressed as a gypsy. They became a couple from that point on. The Polish Student’s Club had an active social calendar – Mr. Dubicki taught Polish dancing, and the Club held weekly meetings and dances and an annual ball.
Ron and Lilli married in 1955 while Ron was in his last year of Med School. From ’55 to ’59, Lilli taught piano to private students and taught Kindergarden at Golf Road Public School, Scarborough. She was a well-liked teacher who took a particular interest in children with special needs. One year she had a young boy with a hunch back, who was teased. For the school’s Santa Claus parade, she made this boy Santa Claus, the centre of attention for that special day. She received several cards and letters of thanks from parents for her work with their children.
After her husband finished his diploma in Psychiatry, Lilli and Ron moved to Hamilton where they started their family. She also started her Bachelor of Arts program at McMaster University in Religious Studies. She went to sit an exam when heavily pregnant and was told she could not enter because it could upset some of the other students. She stood her ground, saying “Not only am I writing this exam, but I may deliver!”
In 1963 Lilli and Ron moved with their three children to Brampton where Ron founded Peel Memorial Hospital’s Psychiatric unit and Lilli became very active in the community. She was Chair of the United Appeal, Heart Fund, active in the University Women’s Club, President of the Marie Curie Slodowska Club, and the Brampton Oratorio Association. One year she pitched for funding of Handel’s Messiah and the Oratorio performed the entire work with an 18-piece orchestra conducted by Eugene Kash and 4 soloists including a young Jean Stillwell.
For sport and amusement, Ron and Lilli were founding members of Beaver Valley Ski Club, rode at Chinguacousy Country Club with Col. Gutowski, took numerous ski trips to Europe and the US with Parsenn Ski Club, and studied painting under Karl Schaeffer and batik at Marie Schneider School of Art in
Actinolite, Ontario. Many weekends were spent with the family at their farm in the Beaver Valley, and after they sold it at the cottage on Lake Manitouwabing, where their prime mission was to stuff their grand-children after water skiing and wind-surfing with as much barbecued steaks and sausage as they could.
As a piano teacher, Lilli really pushed music. The entire family would pile into the car and head into Toronto for Conservatory Thursdays – Konrad on piano and cello, Andre on violin, Danuta with voice and then cello, Lilli on piano and Ron on flute. Lilli and Ron were patrons of the Parry Sound Music Festival, the Chopin piano competition, and avid subscribers to Brampton’s Rose Theatre, Stratford Festival, Shaw Festival, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, National Ballet of Canada, and the Canadian Opera Company, even after the infamous stinker of the production Boris Godunov where the entire family walked out at the first intermission. They attended
Lilli’s creative streak extended past music to batik art and as a writer. She displayed large flowing batiks like Yellow Bird inspired by the Harry Belafonte song and Drowning Ophelia inspired by Hamlet. She wrote numerous articles for The Medical Post and The Lesser Franciscans Magazine. She was a member of the Canadian Writers’ Guild.
Lilli and Ron were very active in community life. They were founders of the St. Maximilian Kolbe Cultural Foundation in Mississauga. They were loyal supporters of the Royal Military College of Canada, the 7th Toronto Regiment Royal Canadian Artillery where Konrad and Andre both served, and The Lorne Scots (Peel, Dufferin and Halton Regiment). She even restarted her teaching career as a supply teacher at Brampton Centennial Secondary School – and as a turn-of-the-century school marm in the one-room school house on Hurontario Street in partnership with Jim Potter. And every Christmas their circle of friends were invited to the annual Christmas Carol party where Lilli would play over 50 English, French Canadian and Polish carols for the guests. As one neighbor said: “It never felt like Christmas until that party.”
Lilli’s life was very full and active. They travelled extensively and were avid cruisers in their later years. Lilli and Ron lived in their house on Malvern Court from 1965 until 2021 when health complications finally dictated a move to Wawel Villa in Mississauga. She is remembered by her family and friends as fiercely loyal of her children and grand-children, barrels of fun at a party, a gracious hostess and a generous entertainer. She will be dearly missed.
Visitiation will be on Sunday, February 20, 2022 from 11:00-5:00 p.m. at Ward Funeral Home (Brampton Chapel) 52 Main St. S., Brampton Ontario. Service will be on Monday, Feberuary 21, 2002 at 9:30 a.m. from St. Maximilian Kolbe Parish, 4260 Cawthra Road, Mississauga. Internment for family only at Mt. Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto.
The family requests that in lieu of flowers donations be made to Wawel Villa Seniors Residences, Charity Registration Number BN 89387 1251 RR 0001.
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Our most sincere sympathies to the family and friends of Liljana Lily Mech Wednesday February 9th 2022..
Death notice for the town of: Brampton, Province: Ontario