Edward Powroznik

Before we start, I would like to tell a story about this past Sunday afternoon when we wrote this eulogy for our father. Dianna and her husband Dave had just brought home our father’s truck. We had just had lunch and then it started to pour rain. We decided to go out to the shop where the truck was parked to clean it out for a little while before we started on the eulogy. When Dianna went to open the door to the shop, I noticed that the porch light of the house had gone on and off and then the power went out. I mentioned to Dianna that “I think he doesn’t want us to clean out the truck now”. Therefore, we both assumed that he wanted us to work on the eulogy first! So we then went back into the house and started working on the eulogy. We worked on it for a while and in the mean time, the weather was crazy. It rained, it poured, it hailed and it even snowed. We had basically finished working on the eulogy and then the power came back on. That meant the computer was now working and I could start typing the eulogy! Thanks DAD! Okay, back to the important part.

No words can express the sadness and the joy that we feel today. Our father’s heart is now healed as he is embraced with our mother Betty and our brother Greg leaving the two of us to tell his story. We would like to celebrate his life with everyone. We are honoured to have had him as our father who gave us life and taught us many things to help make us the strong women we are today.

He was a great husband and father and was a kind dear friend to his lifetime buddy Jack and his long time companion of 32 years Sirkka.

He was born in The Pas, Manitoba on September 29, 1939 and eventually moved to Fort Langley with his family in the late 40’s where he attended elementary school and graduated in 1957 at Langley Secondary School. He was actively involved in organizing most of the grad reunions and attended them all. He was actively involved with the grad committee prior to COVID.

He lived in Langley for most of his life. He had a love for electronics and owned and operated Ed’s Radio & TV Service in down town Langley from around 1959 to the early 1990’s. All of us 3 kids took turns working for him and learning the trade. We all know how to measure and splice a cable cord for cablevision and learned how to do other interesting things around the shop. He taught us what each screwdriver was. He was like a surgeon in the operating room. “Hand me a Phillips screwdriver”. Hand me a Robertson screwdriver”. Does anyone know what a Robertson screwdriver is? We sure do! We all 3 thank him for our bad backs as we had our share of lifting TV’s. He also taught us skills of running the shop, including opening it up for business in the morning, closing it down for the night and making sure the alarm was turned on. I remember a few times setting the alarm, locking up, and then getting the feeling half way home on my 10-speed bicycle that I forgotten to set the alarm. So I would turn around and head back to the shop, open it up again and then check the alarm. And guess what, the alarm was always set, but I just wanted to make sure. We were also taught to sell things, keep track of the money in the till, fill out bank deposit forms and then take the money to the bank. All skills we learned from him helped us with our lives today.

Most of Langley probably knew who our father was as there weren’t many TV and radio repair shops around. If you can believe it, he actually made house calls which we attended regularly with him if it was after hours.

He loved all kinds of sports. When we were growing up, we spent a lot of time at Exhibition Park in Vancouver, as he owned a few thoroughbred racehorses. A few of the horses would win a race and the exciting part was we actually got to go into the winner’s circle during those times and get our picture taken! Another fun part of him owning racehorses was we got to go into the horse barns there and hot walk the horses after the race. Sometimes we went there early in the mornings to the barns and helped muck out the horse stalls. Those were the days!!

While he was young, he played basketball, hockey and softball. In his adult years, he played hockey, fast pitch baseball and softball and even bowled in a local bowling league. We remember him dragging us from field to field every weekend during the baseball season. We especially remember our trips to White Rock for tournaments and down to Blaine, Washington for games (when he was on the Blaine team). Some of the players would bring an endless supply of beer for the adults and an endless supply of pop for all the kids to drink. Sometimes after the baseball games in White Rock, the baseball team and their families would have a bond fire with a BBQ on the beach side of the railroad tracks and we would roast wieners and marshmallows. What fun we had!

At these baseball tournaments our father taught us how to make money by collecting empties around the baseball park and running after stray balls that were batted out of the park (twenty-five cents a ball). We had an endless supply of candy money.

When we were kids, it was ok for the baseball team and their spouses to celebrate their victories or losses at the local pub while we kids sat in the back seat of our father’s station wagon waiting to go home. You could never get away with that now!!

He was also an avid hunter who shared his love of hunting with his father, Stanley and his 2 older brothers, Ab and Bob and other relatives and friends. He was involved with the local hunters club and was in charge of arranging for use of local farmers fields to allow the hunting club to hunt. He also collected the clubs yearly membership dues and handed out the required membership badges. This was usually done at the TV shop and sometimes we were left in charge of taking the money while our father was away from the shop (secretarial experience early in life!).

He was mostly interested in hunting moose, caribou, ducks and geese. He would never shoot a deer! We grew up eating a ton of caribou and moose (burgers, roast and Swiss steak to name of few meals). We also learned to package up the butchered meat in our grandpas basement as that is where they usually hung and cured the meat.

Dianna

As we didn’t have a hunting retriever, I would go hunting with my father (usually at Fry’s Corner) and he would make me watch where the fallen ducks had landed and go fetch it and bring it to him. Once we got home, I was the one to pluck the poor dead ducks. I think the feathers were saved for my grandma Mary to make pillows with.

For many years, he fished on the Fraser River with his father to fish for salmon. We had memories of going with our father to search for ooligans along the shores of Derby Reach or near the Fort Langley Ferry terminal. We also went to White Rock Pier to fish for crabs. I remember a specific time crab fishing out at White Rock Pier. We fished for hours and only caught 1 crab (which was undersized). We put it in the bucket and proceeded to take this illegal crab home, until just before hitting 176th Street, he panicked and swore the crab police were tailing us. He made me open my window and told me to throw the little bastard out the window. Jail time averted (the people in the tailing car turned off at 176th). Yep - no they were not crab police. No crab was eaten that night by the Powroznik family!

On November 15, 1968, he risked his like to save 3 young people who were involved in a motor-vehicle accident in Langley. Even though it was apparent that everything possible was done to revive them, they lost their lives in this tragic incident. He received a letter from the Police Force to express their sincere appreciation for his efforts.

He was an avid wresting fan and would watch it on TV for hours and hours. He loved to watch hockey and his favourite hockey team was the Toronto Maple Leafs since he was a boy. At the age of 10, he was even a member of the Maple Leafs Banton Hockey Club which was officially affiliated with the Toronto Maple Leafs. In recent years, he would be seen wearing his favourite Leafs toque.

Almost every Saturday night when we were growing up our father would come home from work and switch the channel from whatever we were watching to CBCs Hockey Night in Canada in hopes that the Leafs were playing that night. It is funny that he sold TVs, but the Powroznik Family had to fight over 1 TV!

He loved football and frequently went and watched the BC Lions games at BC Place Stadium and occasionally shared that experience with his grandchildren, Anthonye, Mirleena and Emilia.

He occasionally watched his grandson Anthonye play football and also attended a few of his granddaughters Mirleena and Emilia dance recitals.

He was an avid casino man and in his early years frequented Reno and Vegas. He also went to the state of Washington to attend casinos there. Prior to COVID, you could find him playing the slots at the local casinos. He always claimed he won more than he lost!

Our father was also an animal lover. Throughout the years we had numerous dogs and cats and he loved them all. The past few years while he was living in Mission with us, he loved our 3 dogs and they loved him back. We can tell that they are missing him dearly.

During the past year he battled with a rare bone marrow cancer and was strong and stubborn until the end. Our father is an amazing man, intelligent, talented and he touched the hearts of many people who knew him. We want to thank him for being a part of our lives and that we are who we are today because of him. We are forever grateful to have known him and he will be missed and loved. Until we meet again, we will always love you.

Edward Powroznik

1939-2021

Eulogy by Gary Powroznik

My Brother Ed as seen from the eyes of his ‘little brother’ and lessons he taught me in his own quiet way.

My brother Ed was 12 years older than me and two years younger than Albert and two years older than Bob…I was the baby of the family, six years younger than Doreen, who was smack in the middle between Ed and me. Make no mistake, sometimes I felt like the afterthought or mistake, but a loving family always lets you know that you were the “surprise” and one of the best additions the family could have. Being so much younger, often makes it difficult to really connect with one’s older siblings unless they are around you or nearby. Well, with Ed we really connected because he lived at home on our small farm until he was 26 and stayed in Langley for the rest of his life - we were never more than 30 miles apart.

Early Memories – some of my earliest memories of Ed are about how he and Ab and Bob would carry on amongst themselves as teenagers playing baseball or basketball together, doing various chores at the farm or helping our Dad with his various entrepreneurial businesses, going hunting with our Dad and often getting into heated arguments with my demanding Dad if he felt they were not helping him enough or causing trouble as teenage boys will do! Our Mom, as Mom’s usually

do, would stick up for which ever boy was in the doghouse over an issue…and sometimes it was Doreen particularly if my brothers would tease her as they often did. For me sometimes it was like living though each day at the circus, getting up with anticipation of what interesting learning or scary thing was going to happen that day, going outside to play or work with the animals and nature, learning to handle the tough love or dramatic confrontations that might occur, enjoy the warm embraces or complements one would get and finally bedtime stories and prayers and falling asleep wondering what the next day would hold.

Ed – A distinct Personality. Where was Ed in all this? Ed was always the calmest, quietest and most thoughtful of the family at that age. Participating in the things he loved like sports and hunting, studying hard, and acting as the peacemaker when it seems like a free for all would erupt. We all went to church and Ed was the most religious of us all and developed a compassionate spirit in helping others that stayed with him for a lifetime. Yet Ed was fiercely independent in his own quiet way which fostered a stubbornness that I did not fully recognize until later years. My Dad and brothers were all big tough guys, but Ed’s toughness was more of a quiet determined mental toughness that he used more than his big physical stature.

Ed became an Entrepreneur, and Technical Wizard when it came to fixing radios, televisions, record players and other electronics – kind of the electronics doctor. After graduating from Langley Secondary School with a Grade 13, he went to Vancouver Vocational Institute to study electronics. After graduation from there he opened up his business, Ed’s Radio & TV Service in Langley in about 1960 near the post office.

He successfully ran that business for over 50 years endearing himself to anyone who had a problem with their television, stereo, radio or other personal entertainment electronics because he would fix them for a modest fee. He liked the mental and technical challenge and an opportunity to help someone. It gave me an opportunity to work with him in his shop on Saturdays and to do house calls, starting when I was about 11. I think my starting daily rate was 25 cents. Ed was honest and dedicated to serving his customers that shone through to the thousands of customers he had over the years. I learned determination and resourcefulness to find a solution to a problem and good customer service from him.

Ed the Sportsman

I used to play Little League baseball and Ed used to volunteer his time to be an umpire. Occasionally he would umpire my games. That would usually feel good except when he would call strikes on me that I felt were balls. Ed and Ab played a lot of senior men’s fastball (softball). One of my greatest joys growing up was watching them, mostly Ed, play in local games and tournaments throughout the Fraser Valley the Interior and Vancouver. Sometimes Ab would come from Vancouver to play. Since I was a good ball player, Ed and his teammates would get me to play as early as 12 when they were short a player. At 16 I was a full time second baseman while Ed played first. Not much got past this dynamic duo! Occasionally, we got to play with AB which was special for all of us, especially if Mom, Dad and Doreen were there to watch. Unfortunately, Bob did not live close enough to participate. Since our team was based out of Fort Langley, we connected with many from that

area as fellow players, fans or sponsors and were well travelled throughout the Fraser Valley by participating in many tournaments.

Ed loved hockey as I guess he learned to play in The Pas Manitoba with Ab and Bob growing up before moving to Langley. We all watched Hockey Night in Canada every Saturday. Ab liked the Montreal Canadians and Ed liked the Toronto Maple Leaf’s. Since Ed stayed home much longer than Ab, he influenced me to become a Maple Leaf fan, at least until the Canucks joined the NHL and then I became a Canucks fan.

Ed and Ab used to play recreational hockey together and like most of the sports things Ed did, I used to tag along. One time the referee did not show up so I was asked to referee the game from the timekeeper’s box since I did not skate very well. It was a real experience for me at 14 as both teams were mad at me for missing calls from my perch in the timekeeper’s box where its not always easy to see what is going on when there’s congestion on the ice. The most memorable time was when I had to give Ed a roughing penalty for which he was annoyed at me for missing the slash the other player had given him first….I reminded him that I was just doing my job like he was when he called me out on strikes in Little League when he was the umpire. I learned objectivity in decisions from Ed when one had the responsibility to make them.

In the last few years, I would take Ed to the Canuck games whenever Toronto came to town which was a highlight for both of us because of our lifetime of being hockey fans. Ed is still a Maple Leaf fan and brother, I know you are here and listening, unfortunately the Leaf’s lost

last night, but they are still in first place. For your sake, I hope they win the Stanley Cup this year because you have been such a patient fan.

Hunting & Fishing – Our Dad and all my brothers were great hunters of ducks, geese, pheasants, moose, deer and elk. I can often remember them going out in the mornings on weekends to shoot ducks and then bring piles of them back for Mom to pluck, clean and cook. I think I got sick of duck up to here! And that is why I never really wanted to hunt although Ed and Dad took me out many times to stand in the cold and help fetch the dead one as they stalked those poor ducks.

Ed would also go big game hunting with my Dad almost annually into the interior of BC, particularly when our Dad was older and did not have anyone else to go with. It produced many great stories and experiences for both.

I became a commercial fisherman after learning it from helping my Dad on his gillnetter at the Fort Langley ferry crossing. I ran my own gillnetter at 13 for eleven years while at school, university and as an articling CA student. Since I was no longer available to help Dad, Ed would do it and we had many adventurers and tall tales to tell. Fortunately, we all narrowly missed major injury or death during a midnight accident at the ferry dock in 1969 from a tugboat pulling a gravel barge during a major fishing opening. My Dad lost his boat but mine was saved. I think that ended Ed’s commercial fishing career although he would still go sports fishing with friends and relatives.

These experiences with Ed, among others, taught me the rich family experience that can come from kids helping their parents in both family businesses and recreation. It also taught me that tough conflicts can

arise, and it take a willingness to sort those out in a loving way. To do so, family members need to be present and committed both physically and mentally. I learned this from Ed.

A Supportive Brother When You Needed Him Looking back, I see how Ed quietly supported my development when I needed it. He was never pushing and always had his own personal active life that he included me in as I wanted. Since he lived at home util 26, after Doreen graduated from high school and moved away for work, it was just Ed and me at home. Being on the farm, he was my main transportation before I could drive at 16. Since we were both very sports oriented, I ended up participating with Ed on all his sports activities one way or another as an adolescent, teenager and during university.

Ed was also there to help to support the family when they needed it and to attend the many family events and dinners involving Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving and birthdays. Our collection of strong-willed family members also had its share of conflict for which Ed was often a peacemaker when he thought he could make a difference. But Ed never inserted himself into situations but rather responded when it appeared someone needed or asked or help. He guarded his independence and busy life and did not want to bother others with his issues. Sometimes I wished he had, especially later in life when his health was not so good, and he could have used some help on investment and tax matters and in winding down his busy commitments to his electronics business. These were areas that I offered to help him with as my way of paying him back for including me in his world when I was young. In many ways Ed was that stay-close-to-home family and was there when he was needed yet had his own fulfilling life. He loved our family member and his own wife and children but did not always overtly express it but was always there when one needed him and never refused to help. The untimely loss of his wife Betty was very hard for Ed and his children. From Ed I learned the importance of supporting family by being available while encouraging independence even while one was hurting themselves.

Some Short Snap Shots Memorable Alaska Cruise with Doreen and Ed

After we lost Ab in 2011, Ed, Doreen and I looked for an opportunity to travel together although both suffered mobility issues. In 2013, we took a cruise to Alaska which was a memorable time for us. One memorable moment was us having dinner with many American couples and Ed told one of his many stories, one I had not heard before. We were off the coast of the Alaska Panhandle bordering Northern BC. Ed told the story of him hunting Moose on horseback in the Stikine Mountain range that bordered Alaska and BC. You should have seen the admiration that the Americans had for him, it was like they had discovered the Canadian equivalent to John Wayne. I was always amazed at the many stories he had that added a richness to my understanding of our family’s life and how so few of these stories are shared today as families are disbursed over wide areas and ages. I learned from Ed and other older family members the richness of our past and wisdom of many of the basics of life if we only ask and listen.

Ed, the calculating gambler

Ed had an amazing mathematical and technical mind that was always calculating. When not busy at solving the electronic problems, he chose to use his skills on playing the penny stock market, owning racehorses and playing games of chance at casinos and on the computer. He was a careful investor and was always calculating how he could beat the house or the odds of losing and was proud to speak of his regular successes.

Ed was a Christian, loved his God and Witnessed to Many who were Interested to Hear. Ed was always the go-to person for the before meal prayer and was very active in his church until his mid-20s before being consumed by his business, family life and obligations. But he always looked for opportunities to speak about his faith and that he looked forward to going to heaven when the time came. He was very at peace knowing that his medical issues he would soon take his life and that he would see his loved ones who had passed before him. I learned from Ed to not be afraid to express one’s faith as many are more receptive to speak about these things than one realizes.

Picture of Ed on his Public Eulogy (expanded after delivery at service)

Ed’s picture on his public eulogy (attached) is very meaningful for me and an excellent example of Ed’s contribution to his community and the many friends he had developed throughout all stages of his life in West Langley (Walnut Grove), Fort Langley and Langley. Ed invited me to come with him to the annual Langley celebration of Douglas Day at the Langley Events Centre in November 2018 (see attached). Douglas Day is named after British Columbia’s first governor, James Douglas. On November 19, 1858, he made the proclamation which created the crown colony of BC at the Big House in Fort Langley, earning the community the title of “The Birthplace of BC.” Each year Langley would honour its pioneers at this event (those who were at least 70 and who had lived in Langley for 60 years or more), to support those who have made the community what is - its people, the individuals and groups whose contributions, principles, hard work, and guidance give a place its character and create a sense of home. That year they paid special tribute to the pioneer men and women who took time away from the home and fields to compete or just play, along with the coaches, trainers, and mentors who gave their time and talent to produce Langley’s excellent athletes and sports teams. Ed was being recognized as a pioneer and there were many other pioneers and friends, that he and I had grown up with over the years in Langley which deep and rich relationships were evident in many conversations. I took the picture of Ed at the event that day and his satisfaction and pleasure of his life’s contribution to the community that he was able to share with his many friends shines through in his expression.

Tribute to Ed. Ed, thank you for being such a good brother to me and a valuable family member in your quiet and supportive way. I now understand how independent you were, how you quietly supported so many people, and when called upon were always willing to find time to help your family and community. I have learned so much from you and my memories of you and our times together will live on forever with me until we meet again…all my love Brother…