It is with great sadness that the family of Neonila Pashkovsky (née Ficalowycz) announces her passing on December 5, 2023

Neonila was born on September 25, 1925 in the village of Kotuziv, Ukraine to Reverend Julian and Olga (Oleksin) Ficalowycz and spent her young years in the village of Khmelivka.

In 1945 she escaped from war-torn Ukraine with her mother, three sisters and brother and fled west to escape the war and Communist oppression leaving behind her father & Ivan, an older brother.

After a difficult journey the family ended up in the Orlyk, the D. P. camp located in the Bavarian Alps in Berchtesgaden, Germany which was under the care and protection of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration.

After spending a few years at the refugee camp the family was resettled temporarily in Ben Metir, Tunisia where Neonila met and married Anatol Pashkovsky in 1950 and gave birth to her son, Julian and daughter, Roma.

Approximately 350 Ukrainian refugees created a social, cultural and religious community including a kindergarten that Neonila helped to organize for the very young refugee children.

In 1954 the young family along with Neonila’s in-laws immigrated to the United States, and they settled in the New York City area where her second son Marko was born and spent 11 fulfilling and very active years in the Ukrainian community.

In 1965 the family of five moved to Toronto to be together with the rest of her extended family and where for 20 years she taught “Sadochok” and organized preschool concerts at Toronto’s “Ridna Shkola”.

After the untimely death of her beloved husband in 1992 Neonila lived on her own & was an active volunteer for many years helping and singing for many organizations and at many events. She was always composing & recording traditional Ukrainian songs and of course loved to sing with her five grandchildren.

As a parishioner of St. Demetrius Ukrainian Catholic Church and as a long time member of The Ukrainian Catholic Women's League of Canada she participated in many activities and sang in the church choir. Even in her early eighties she travelled numerous times to her beloved Ukraine to visit her older brother & her late husband’s family.

She was quite independent for over 23 years until 2015 when she needed more care and moved into the Ukrainian Canadian Care Centre and after a long, heartbreaking period of decline inflicted on her by Alzheimer’s disease, she passed away peacefully.

Neonila was predeceased by her beloved husband Anatol Pashkovsky (1992) and her dear son, Marko Pashkovsky.(2022)

She will be sadly missed by daughter Roma Boiko (Volodymyr), son Julian Pashkovsky (Marlene) and daughter-in-law, Elizabeth Kevill-Pashkovsky, beloved grandchildren, Jennifer (Radu), Stephen (Monika), Justin (Kate), Erik and Hannah (Avery) as well as great-grandchildren, Valerie, Scarlett and Jackson.

She leaves behind her sister, Marusia Styranka, many nephews and nieces in Canada, Ukraine, the EU and the United States.

The family extends its sincere gratitude to the nursing and care staff at the Ukrainian Canadian Care Centre for their help, support and compassion.

Visitation will be held on December 11, 2023, from 6 to 8 p.m. Panachyda at 7:30 p.m. at the Turner & Porter :Yorke Chapel" Funeral Home, 2357 Bloor St W, Toronto.

Divine Liturgy will be held on Tuesday, December 12, 2023 at 11:30 a.m. at St. Demetrius Ukrainian Catholic Church, 134 La Rose Ave. Toronto with a private cremation to follow and interment at York Cemetery, 60 Beecroft Rd, North York.

At this time, the family asks that you honour Neonila’s memory by supporting any Ukrainian charity of your choice.