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MARY SIWAK A TRIBUTE TO THE OLDEST MEMBER OF THE UKRAINIAN WOMEN'S LEAGUE OF AMERICA by MIRIAM POLIWODA MOODY Mary Siwak of Roseville, Michigan turned 100 on October 20, 1999. A member of UNWLA Branch 83 since 1955, she has the distinction of being the oldest active member of the UNWLA. Tresurer of Branch 23 for fourteen years, Mary resigned the post when her vision began to fail, but she did not allow physical limitations to dampen her enthusiasm for her UNWLA membership. At 95 years of age, confident that God would continue to bless her, she pre-paid her UNWLA dues five years in advance! Bom in the village of Lany, near Lviv, Mary arrived in Detroit in 1920 when her older brother Wasyl, who had emigrated to the United States earlier, kept a promise he had made to her and sent for her. She was twenty-one years old, jobs were plentiful and she was willing to work. Within two years, she married Joseph Siwak and the couple opened a restaurant in a converted street car. Sons John and Joseph were bom in 1923 and 1930 respectively. The restaurant thrived and the couple opened a grocery and butcher shop, successful for a number of years until the Siwaks' willingness to carry many of their poor customers "on the book" when they were unable to pay, drove them to bankruptcy in 1933. Her personal heartaches included the death of her son Joseph, at age 16, of leukemia, two years after the death of her husband, Joseph, Sr. Mary Siwak went "back to business" in the little lunchroom, a haven for people seeking a nice place to socialize. Many a down and out person was befriended by Mary Siwak at this time. She gave work to those who had nowehere else to turn and was much appreciated. Years later, she wrote about many of these people in her memoirs, in Ukrainian, after a visit to her village in Ukraine in 1968. It was a happy time during which she was reunited with siblings and a multitude of friends not seen in 48 years. The visit to Ukraine brought memories of happy girlhood days, but also days of turmoil when, in succession, Austrian, Polish and Russian armies marched through the village. She recalls her family fleeing with their five cows. They returned a day later when they realized that their slow movement was futile, her father saying, "If God allows us to live until morning we will all return home tomorrow. What will happen will happen, but at least we'll die on our own land." This was World War I and a difficult time. The older men were taken into the Austrian army; later, the younger men were to report to the Russian army. In her memoirs, Mary tells how the armies took their horses, cows and food. She also writes of finding a dead soldier, burying him and praying for him. During her visit to Ukraine, Mary Siwak was struck by the beauty of Lviv and Kyiv, but dismayed that the Ukrainian language was losing its purity, that Russian words were heard everywhere. In her journal she writes about Shevchenko's words to appreciate other people and their cultures and languages, but "never forget your own." And Mary Siwak never did. In one of her recent letters to her family in Ukraine she made a point of instructing them to "vote wisely and pmdently in the forthcoming elections for a president who will be deeply concerned about the good of the people and not himself." “НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ЛЮТИЙ 2000 17 Photo o f Mary Siwak taken Oct. 1999.
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