Mary (Bartko) Perzan

Mary Perzan (nee Maria Bartko) was the eighth child born to Kost and Dora Bartko on the family farm near Insinger, Saskatchewan on May 13, 1924. Her parents had immigrated from the Ukraine in 1910/11 and were married in 1911. A ninth child was born almost 7 years later with whom Mary took on the role of mother and teacher. She passed away peacefully in the Humboldt hospital on March 17, 2020 at 5:25 a.m. with her son and daughter-in-law by her side. Her daughter spent countless sleepless hours at her side during this 14 day hospital stay. Mary's first job away from home was to work at Spillett's Fruit Farm in Dauphin, MB where she earned $20 a month for two months processing strawberries. She also did housework in Yorkton for a couple that operated a dry-cleaning business. She also worked at doing housework and chores for various couples in the area during harvest time. Mary met and married George Albert Perzan of Fosston on September 21, 1951 at the Elim Evangelical Free Church. They were blessed with the birth of four children, one of which passed away in infancy. Daughter Barbara passed away in 2006. Surviving are son Ray Perzan (Jan) and daughter Darlene (Don) Fletcher. Mary was fully occupied by raising a family and worked hard at growing a very large garden, milking a couple of cows, raising pigs and chickens for meat (and eggs), yard work, canning fruit, separating milk and cream, churning butter, and baking all varieties of bread which were always complimented by anyone that had a meal at her house. As her husband's health deteriorated, Mary took on all elements of maintaining a house and large yard, and was seen on ladders scraping and painting the house along with all the trimming of trees, weed eating, and cutting grass. This went on well into her eighties. She was a seamstress who took on all aspects of clothing from creating something new to patching old. She was dependent on others for transportation as she never did get a driver's licence and made many miles on a bicycle. Mary was a woman of faith, and the Lord was her main companion as she continued to live in her house alone after her husband passed in 1992. Seven grandchildren were born and became part of Mary's life from 1974 to 1983. A further eleven great-grandchildren came along starting in 2006, and two step great-grandchildren as recently as the summer of 2019. Mary's greatest joy was seeing her family show up in Fosston, and she had several occasions over the years where family would gather as far away as Spruce Grove to celebrate a milestone birthday. The most recent was in Martensville in 2019 for her 95th birthday. Right up to her last days with us, she repeatedly said that she was so happy to have and love her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Sadly, our current world condition, particularly that of Covid-19 and the measures being put in place for this pandemic, have simply resulted in a huge scaling down of the type of service that we can plan for our mother/grandmother/great-grandmother on her final goodbye before we lay her to rest. We are further challenged by potential division created in our family with decisions made around travelling to attend the funeral service at a time that people are being told to stay home. We know that it is immensely important to all of the immediate family to be a part of this important day and was always something that “baba” hoped would be well attended. Baba would be saddened if she knew that her passing would cause future animosity in her close family. To this end, we will be planning another service that will be a celebration of her life, and when travel restrictions are lifted, we invite anyone and everyone that knew her to share in this day.

The family would request that, in lieu of flowers, donations in Mary's memory can be made to the Fosston Evangelical Church Cemetery Fund, P.O. Box 28, Fosston, SK, S0E 0V0.