KAZIMIERZ CHOMKO

KAZIMIERZ CHOMKO November 24, 1911 - October 3, 2015 Kaz Chomko died last Saturday, October 3, 2015, at the age of 103, after a long and varied life. Born and raised on a small homestead in Poland, he left home already at age 12 to keep accounts for his aunt who ran a cafe in Czerna Bialystock, in the east of Poland. As a police officer before the war, Kaz automatically became a soldier once WWII broke out. During the war he served as a tank troop commander with the Canadian army, where he made a pact with his men to kill no one, but only take prisoners. Twice during the war he was captured and escaped. Anna Carling's book about Kaz's war years, titled "Drop Your Weapons -- the Kaz Chomko story", was published in 2011, for Kaz's 100th birthday. Not wanting to return to a communist Poland after the war, Kaz immigrated to Canada, where he first worked near Richmond Hill as a farm labourer. Later he sold life insurance to loggers in Northern Ontario. It was during that time that he met his wife, Doris, who was teaching in Timmins. In the early 1950s the family moved to a small farm near lake Ontario between Whitby and Ajax, where Kaz grew pick-your-own strawberries and raspberries and later raised SPF pigs. Kaz had been a forester in Poland, so farming wasn't too much of a stretch for him. On the farm, Kaz used carpentry skills he had learned in Scotland after the war, to build a house for the family, as well as a garage and a barn, all of which are still standing. In 1967, when a fall and injury meant he could no longer continue farming, the family moved to Oshawa, where Kaz sold real estate. When he became disillusioned with the ethics in the office where he worked, he decided to retire and devote himself to helping run the St. Vincent de Paul's Marygrove Camp for disadvantaged girls. Later Doris also retired and joined him at Marygrove in Penetanguishene. It was during this time that the Toronto Archdiocese started a program to train lay deacons. Doris encouraged Kaz to participate, and helped him with his studies and homework. He was then about 65. After Kaz graduated, he and his wife moved around a lot, doing missionary work in the Caribbean and in British Columbia, before settling down in Ontario, where they could be closer to their grandchildren. Eventually, in 1991, they moved to Hesperus, an elder community near Richmond Hill, where Kaz was to live until his death. Doris had died in 2006. While at Hesperus, Kaz visited the sick at York Central Hospital each week, held Bible study groups, assisted at Mass and participated actively in other pastoral work, even when, in later years, he himself was confined to a motorized wheelchair. Kaz is survived by his two sons, Richard and Robert, and by their wives Elisabeth and Lisa, and their children Sylvia, Erik, Jonathan and Katrina, Sarah, Dominic, Theresa, and great-grandchildren Rebecca and Jessica. Kaz benefitted greatly from the care of his longtime doctor Kenneth McAlister and from the support of many personal service workers and other helpers and friends at Hesperus and beyond. His housekeeper Marie Aretusi deserves special mention as well, for her devotion and love of Kaz in his later years. As a Third Order Fransciscan, Kaz had been deeply moved by the example of St. Francis' life, and it was significant that he died on the same date as St. Francis, October 3rd. Kaz's funeral was held October 7th at St. Mary Immaculate Church in Richmond Hill and his body was buried in Holy Cross Cemetery, next to that of his wife Doris.