William (Will) Clement Chewchuk April 2, 1987–July 11, 2006

 Eulogy Given by William Sametz for His Grandson

Your Eminence Archbishop Yurij, Very Reverend Bohdan Hladio, Chancellor of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada, Reverend Fathers, my dear Brothers and Sisters, Glory to Jesus Christ.

Vasylko, Vasylko. Now that we are all cried out from grief and sorrow, it is time to celebrate your life, You always loved a party, and we know you are with us now, a little bird and butterflies told us so. In all of your 19 years, you gave us a lesson in how to love each other, how to hug, and how grown men may cry. You truly walked in His steps. Your contemporaries came in all colours and creeds. Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, Muslim and Buddhists gathered strength and prayed together in our Cathedral. They may not have understood the words of the prayers sung in Ukrainian, but they told us that they felt the deep depth of the fervent prayers and the responses sung by your beloved Capella Bandura Brothers and over 60 voices of the choir. Friends prayed in their own churches and temples and in Kyiv, Lviv, Greece, Malta and at the Vatican.

Will, you have gathered us all here today together as one whole family, leaning on each other for strength and expressing our deep love for you. It was like an Easter service, overflowing with over 2,000 people who came to pray with us. Even your kindergarten teacher came to tell me that with the hundreds of children she had taught, she remembered you as someone special.

From the very beginning you came to us as a gift from God, as every child does. You wore a cute little blue toque–as you always loved your caps and hats, and you looked us all over and gave our family your full approval. You never cried or whined, even to the painful end, and all the children loved to play with you, because you always shared your toys and everything you had. You were their Pied Piper.

Your sister Katya always loved to hug you and, immediately, declared that as your older sister, her job was to be your official tormentor. You immediately let her do it because you knew that with your consent she would not enjoy it. You would become bound to each other, closer than anyone could be, right to the end, and forever in her heart,

Willy, we worried that for the first four years you never spoke much and you said to me, “Dido, what smart thing can you expect a four-year-old to say, when he is just learning what life around him is all about.” When your Khrestna Irene, your Mom, Teta Katrusia and Baba Ruzia were sewing the much-needed new stychary (altar boy robes), Baba Ruzia sewed a special little one for you when you were five years old, to start your service to the Church and the Cathedral that your great-grandfather helped build. Maxym Trojan mentored you and then you took his place to mentor others. There was also the Petro Mohyla Institute, where for three summers you studied Ukrainian and gathered a network of friends. You also attended the Bandura and Odum summer camps.

You studied advanced mathematics at Kumon, and ranked in the top-ten percentile in North America, together with your beloved cousins Simon and Christina. Even when you were ill in April, you wrote your final Chemistry exam, and although you couldn’t finish, you told us you got 87 per cent, and if you could have finished, you may have gotten in the 90s. How excited you were to have been accepted to four colleges. You knew exactly what you wanted to excel in. You joked about your proposed construction company, Rewa, Rewa and Chewchuk, because you said you couldn’t miss partnering with smart, loyal friends.

Last week, when Baba and I sat with you, you talked for over three hours, regaling us with your life story: your love for the best cousins anyone could be blessed with, about riding in the “Gator” with your best friend Sasha, about how you wanted to leam guitar from your cousin James, and about the best Babas in the world, and about Baba Valia’s varenyky and Baba Ruzia’s famous chicken soup. You reminisced how you loved skiing and snow-boarding at which you excelled. With your trip to Lake Placid in March with your father, you said you learned how great it was just to be with him, and even when you didn’t have to say anything. Every Thursday was extra-special with your father and your Capella Bandura brothers. You arranged our annual outing with the grandchildren to the Blue Jays game for Dido’s Birthday and were so sorry you had to miss it. You talked about how you looked forward to going home,

Tuesday morning at 7:15 you came home as you promised, but we didn’t realize that you were telling us that you were coming home to His Kingdom, and not to ours. With all the love you gave to every one of us, in your 19 years with us, the Lord called you to help and serve Him to handle this overwhelming outpouring of love of your family and friends, and everyone whose life you touched. Your last words to us was how happy you were that your illness brought us all together, stronger than ever. We will never forget you. Sleep gently in the Lord, sweet Prince. Vichnaya Pamyiat.