Dragan Tataj, better known as Charlie, passed away at Etobicoke General Hospital on Friday, August 30. Charlie always had great timing in life, and his death on a beautiful warm evening coincided with the setting of the sun, the end of the week, the last of the summer.

Charlie was just a few weeks shy of his eighty-sixth birthday. For almost all of his life he enjoyed robust good health, but the final two years were difficult ones in which he battled multiple illnesses and endured the death of his beloved wife. He was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia and also suffered from a failing heart. He needed blood transfusions and constant care and was in and out of hospitals. It was tough going for a man who had been so fiercely independent, so competent, successful and self-sufficient. Yet he bore it all with his characteristic optimism, courage and good humour.

He was predeceased in November 2023 by his wife of sixty years, Anne (nee Mrakava), and will be mourned and deeply missed by his daughter Nicole (Kenneth Bonert) and son Matthew (Paola Tataj). Charlie is survived by his sister Jozefina (Milan Damijanic) of Bendigo, Australia. He was predeceased by his sister, Nada Maričić, and also by his six brothers: Duro, Julius, Nikola, Matija, Josip and Daniel.

Charlie’s life was an immigrant success story, he contributed to building the Canada we know today and enjoyed the fruits of this country’s freedom and prosperity. He was born Dragan Tataj but he became Charlie when he arrived in Canada after escaping from Communist Yugoslavia in 1958.

When Charlie stepped off the train at Union Station at age 20, he had only a few dollars in his pocket, spoke no English, and didn’t know anyone who lived here. His only assets were his skill as a cabinetmaker and his innate intelligence and energy. He soon found work building houses and cottages and taught himself fluent English, both written and spoken, though his accent would never fade. Within a few years he started a family and eventually built up a successful business.

Charlie always retained a strong sense of his Croatian identity. He was born in the Croatian village of Dragalic to a Catholic family of nine children who eked out a living from subsistence farming. In later years he would recall a childhood full of hunger and hard work, a family held together by the tenacity of his mother.

After school, Charlie studied cabinet making and then worked at a furniture factory in Nova Gradiska. He decided that there was no future for him under the communist system and resolved to escape to the west. He joined with two friends from his village and together they hatched an escape plan. The trio stowed away in a hidden space inside the lumber carried by a freight train. The journey over the border was supposed to take four days but the train was delayed for repairs, leaving the stowaways trapped inside for almost a week. Fortunately the train crossed into Austria where the trio were discovered by the authorities and taken to a displaced persons camp called Glazenbach outside Salzburg.

After six months in the camp, Charlie was able to get a visa to Canada. A Catholic aid society bought him a translatlantic ship ticket. He later recalled that on the ship he was given an orange for the first time in his life and didn’t know how it was supposed to be eaten. After arriving in Montreal he took the train to Toronto and his new life.

Charlie’s work in house construction continued—Including a stint in the Bahamas for a Canadian developer—before he found steady employment as a welding inspector for American Motors in Brampton. He met Anne at a dance in 1962 and they married the next year. Charlie was good at his automotive job and was offered a promotion. This was a turning point in his life. He later recalled that if he had taken the promotion he probably would not have gone into business on his own because the security of a good job would have been too attractive to leave as he and Anne were planning to have children soon.

Charlie had kept in touch with his friend Vlado Bratasevic who had fled Yugoslavia with him and they had worked together in the Bahamas. Charlie decided to quit his job and go into partnership with Vlado, renovating houses full-time. Eventually they moved into the glass business, starting a company called Modern Age Glass which is still in operation, and specializing in commercial installations.

It was a great time to get into the glass business because shopping mall construction was booming, a trend that would continue through the 1980s. In addition to being a skilled craftsman, Charlie proved to be a natural salesman and he was able to procure a steady supply of contracts for the firm, installing glass in name-brand storefronts in many of Toronto’s most well-known malls.

In 1967, Anne and Charlie had Matthew, and in 1973, Nicole. The family moved to Etobicoke in 1990. Charlie and Anne remained devoted to each other for the sixty years of their marriage before Anne’s unexpected passing last year, a shock that undoubtedly contributed to Charlie’s declining health.

In addition to work and family, Charlie had a passion for the game of golf. He joined the St. George’s Golf and Country club in 1980 and was a regular on the links and in the club house up until he became too ill to attend. He was an accomplished golfer with a six handicap and he won many tournaments. He and Anne also loved to travel with their friends. They spent time in Acapulco, Mexico, a favorite destination, and also traveled to many other places including China, Australia and Europe.

Charlie was an extrovert who enjoyed the company of others and loved to tell a good story or share a joke. He had a knack for starting conversations with people from all walks of life. He was always curious about others and their backgrounds and could be very charming and fun when he wanted to be. He was also a stubborn man, who wasn’t shy to complain if things weren’t being done to his standards. Yet he remained fundamentally sweet-natured and generous under his sometimes demanding exterior. He always wore a neat moustache, and liked to dress well, often topped with an old-school fedora.

Above all, Charlie was a fixer. He had an immense knowledge of carpentry, plumbing, electrical, and other trades, and his skillful hands were constantly busy repairing things around the house. He liked to help others by doing repairs for them. If someone he knew had a problem, his instinct was to go to work solving it. He was a man who was always busy building and doing things.

Charlie worked at Modern Age Glass till the age of seventy. When he retired, he thought he might be bored but in fact he loved it and often said he wished he’d retired sooner. There were always plenty of repairs to be done, places to visit, and rounds of golf to play (often with his son Matthew as a partner). He loved to eat out at the golf club and also to try new restaurants, and he enjoyed sipping his favorite brandy. Christmas times were always occasions to shower his family with gifts and to hold a traditional meal starting with walnuts and oplatky (Christmas wafers).

Charlie was a unique person, colourful and larger than life. He had a rare natural charisma. To those close to him, his absence leaves a void that can never be filled.

Friends and family may call at the Turner & Porter Yorke Chapel, 2357 Bloor St. W., Toronto, on Monday, September 9th from 1-3 and 6-8 p.m. A Funeral Mass will be held at St. Gregory's Roman Catholic Church, 122 Rathburn Road, Etobicoke, on September 10th, 2024 at 11 a.m. Interment Park Lawn Cemetery.

For those who wish, donations may be made to the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation.