Walter Chomsky

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Walter John Chomsky, on Thursday, September 22, 2022 at the age of 93.

Walter was born in Stenen, Saskatchewan to John and Anne Chomsky. He was the youngest of three children.

Walter was predeceased by his parents John and Anne, his brother Roy and his sister Stella, his uncles Jack, Jim, Norman and Walter, and his Aunt Tillie, also his favorite cousin Mike Kosinski as well as many other relatives and friends.

He will be missed by Mary Kosinski and family, Peter Wyss and family and his niece Kimberly Ing and family.

His father was a section foreman in Shortdale and due to a scheduling mix-up, was killed by a train when Walter was only nine years old. His mother then took her three children and moved back home to the farm where grandparents and uncle Norman still lived.

Even though he lost most of his hearing in both ears in early childhood, he still did quite well in school, although his cousin Stella told me that he used to ride his bicycle to her place and had her do his homework.

He tried his hand at fishing with his uncle Jack off of Vancouver Island and up the BC coast for three seasons, and also worked in a restaurant of his relatives in Toronto for a while, but he was happiest on the farm. He and his uncle Norman ran a small mixed farming operation with around 40 cows and they also grew some grain. The farm was sold in 1993 and it was tough on Walter when he had to move into town.

He loved hunting, fishing and mushroom picking, and was known to leave his uncle to do the farm work on his own when any of these three things were in season.

In the winter he loved visiting friends to play cards. Canasta was the favorite game at the Cherneski’s in Merridale, where he and his friend Peter Cherneski would try and gang up on their opponents. When there was no concern about how late it might get, (all we had to do is go and start the truck every couple of hours) then simple Canasta was upgraded to Hand and Foot Canasta, followed by one of Rosie’s delicious late night lunches. Walter would get quite upset when he lost, and since he lost a lot, he was upset a lot.

At home the game of choice was Cribbage, especially after Mary moved in with them. Everyone knew that Mary liked to cheat, so Walter got upset a lot playing that game too.  

He loved to go places. As a young man, when he was in Toronto, he used to go to baseball and hockey games, and he claims he even saw Hank Williams in concert there. He also loved to go on the ocean with his uncle Jack’s fishing boat, and liked to tell stories about traveling up and down the BC coast with it. The author of this obituary took him on many business trips all over Manitoba and Saskatchewan. We even drove all the way to Vancouver once. While I worked for a couple weeks, he visited with his relatives. On another visit to Vancouver, his uncle Walter took him by bus all the way to Reno Nevada. They both loved to gamble; again, Walter got upset a lot because he lost a lot. He also visited Florida where his sister Stella had a winter home.

He moved into the Roblin Residence about 15 years ago. By then most of his family and friends had either moved away or died, and he started to feel very lonely, especially after Mary died. He made a few friends there like Walter Eckert and Jimmy Wasylenchuk. Walter Eckert ended up being one of the few people he would and could visit at Crocus Court after they both moved there in the spring of 2018.

Prayers were offered Sunday, September 25, 2022 at 7:00 pm from the Sneath Strilchuk Funeral Chapel in Roblin and a Funeral Liturgy was held on Monday, September 26, 2022 at 10:00 am from St. Michael's Ukrainian Catholic Church in Roblin, with Rev. Fr. Ivan Hnativ officiating. Interment followed at St. Michael’s Ukrainian Catholic Cemetery.

To honour Walter’s memory, I would like to challenge you all to go and visit someone that is lonely.

For a video tribute of Walter go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNHysfMkrmE

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