Baka was a loving and devoted wife to her husband of 52 years, Jovan, mother to Sasha and Olivera, grandmother to Anna, Maya, Katarina and Isidora and mother-in-law to Slavko and Matilda.

She loved nothing more than to play with her grandchildren, throwing them in the air and into the pool as they yelped with laughter. She loved to cook for them, especially Palachinke, also known as Serbian pancakes, served with enormous jars of Nutella, which the girls ate in abandon. Some of their happiest times together were annual beach trips to Cuba, Jamaica and Mexico, swimming and allowing the young girls to drink virgin pina coladas. The girls still talk about these trips as the happiest and most fun times in their lives.

Luba loved her granddaughters unconditionally and made each of them feel like they were the most unique, wonderful, special person in the world.

Ljubica Sundek was born in 1946 to Milija and Zorka Sundek in Prijepolje, Serbia. She had two sisters, Milica and Dragica and came from a close and loving family. Growing up in Yugoslavia, Luba went to Sarajevo University, where she studied Economics. It is in Sarajevo that she met and fell in love with Jovan Diklic, a charming and handsome civil engineering student. They got married and settled in Sarajevo, where Sasha and Olivera were born and grew up. Luba worked in the Jugobanka in the field of International Economics and Jovan in the field of railway design.

Their life was turned upside down by the Yugoslav wars in the 1990s and one by one they left or, later, escaped from Sarajevo. Luba became a refugee in 1992 when she left Sarajevo and went to live with her sister in Belgrade, where Olivera had already been living for several months.

In September of 1993, Luba, Jovan and Olivera came to Canada, leaving the life they had known behind to forge a new life in Toronto. Luba and Jovan later moved to the United States where Jovan worked as a civil engineer for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. They returned to Toronto when Jovan retired to be close to Olivera and her family.

Sadly Luba was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer during the pandemic. Luba battled this nefarious disease every step of the way and never gave up hope.

Luba’s love of life and her family was all that mattered in the world to her and she underwent a 12 hour surgery and years of unpleasant treatment so that she could be with them as long as possible. Luba lived for almost 3 years after her diagnosis.

Although she went through tremendous hardship, she was surrounded and supported by her family and never stopped smiling and laughing and being there as a Baka for all of the family. Until her final week, she fought on and her spirit and passion to live never waned.

Luba’s exuberance and joyfulness was infectious, and she was the sun around which the family revolved. She will be remembered with enormous love and affection.