Tamara Hajsaniuk was born in Rivne, Ukraine on May 20, 1926 to Serhij and Zunada Dawydiuk. Her sister Halya was born when Tamara was 2. Tamara was a happy child until her mother died of typhoid fever when she was 15 years old. Her father remarried very quickly and Tamara left home at 16 to go to live with her aunt in Innsbruck, Austria where she finished high school and trained as a nurse assistant. In 1948 she married Mykola Hajsaniuk and emigrated to Canada in 1950 with a year old baby girl whom she named Olha after her best friend and her child’s godmother, Olha Basarab, who followed her to Canada in 1951 with her husband Roman.

In Canada, in 1954 Tamara had a son, Andrij. Mykola and Tamara moved frequently in their first twenty years, sometimes twice in one year, and so Tamara spent a lot of time setting up each new house to be a home. Her home was always immaculate and you could literally eat off the floor. She prided herself on always dressing well, co-ordinating colour and style.

During the war, in Ukraine before she left home, she experienced several traumatic events which resulted in her having epilepsy with which she suffered most of her life. Only in her last years was she free from seizures. Tamara was always afraid that she would have a seizure and usually spent her time at home. She was a hard-working feisty woman, quick to anger but quick to forgive. She enjoyed reading, embroidery, puzzles, flowers and took great pleasure in being outside.

Tamara loved her children, her grandchildren, her great-grandchildren and was very proud of them. When her daughter cleaned out her room at the Ukrainian Care Centre, she found that Baba had saved all the cards and pictures her grandchildren and great-grandchildren had made or given to her.
Tamara had a strong faith and belief in God. She attended church regularly read the Bible daily and felt blessed that she had the opportunity to visit the Holy Land. She also travelled to Ukraine and Poland to visit with her relatives. Tamara was always interested in what what happening in the world, followed current events and read everything she could; although, in her later years, with her poor vision, she laboured over a CNIB computer to help her read.

She will be greatly missed by her children, Olha (Roman) and Andrew (Ann), her four grandchildren Evhen (Nicole), Katya (Paul), Alex and Christopher, and her great-grandchildren, Tyler, Connor, Maya and Luke.