In memory of
Ann Krajan
January 19, 1929 - June 22, 2025
With heavy hearts, we said our final goodbye to Ann (Anka) Krajan (née Mrkušić), devoted wife of the late Mike (Marijan) Krajan, beloved mother of Myrna (Gordon Forsythe) and Sandra (David Paynter), cherished grandmother of Kyle (Samantha), Zach, Devon, and Aaron. She is predeceased by her beloved sister, Nada Mrkušić-Valčić in Croatia. She passed peacefully with her two adoring daughters by her side.
Mom grew up in Croatia, living in and going to school in Zagreb, and spending her summers in Podgora on the Dalmatian coast of the Adriatic Sea, where her family had settled hundreds of years ago.
Mom was a voracious reader and developed a love of languages from an early age, including learning conversational German from a housekeeper in her childhood home, and later studying philosophy and literature at university in Zagreb.
It was as she started her university studies that she met a handsome young man who was studying architectural drafting in Zagreb and fell in love.
After the second world war, conditions and opportunities in Europe were not ideal, so Mom and Dad eloped in 1949, and left their homeland in 1951 to start a new adventure in Canada. Dad travelled over the ocean first, and Mom followed. When she arrived, life was very different from the one she left in Croatia. Having limited fluency in English, she took manual jobs to earn and save money, such as assembly-line work at a Toronto chocolate factory, and then later at Philco in Don Mills on Barber Greene Road, where she assembled parts for transistor radios.
They bought their first house, a two-bedroom bungalow in East York, in the mid-1950s and sold that house to buy the land on Ruden Crescent where Dad designed and built our family home.
After her daughters were born, she became a homemaker and devoted stay-at-home mom; she was an amazing cook and baker, making all of the delicacies from her homeland and passing down all of those traditions to us.
Mom returned to work in a part-time capacity when we were in our teens, working downtown for a few years as a media assistant for an audio-visual marketing firm called The AV House.
Mom was a big sports fan. On a cold winter’s day the two of them would make a roaring fire in the fireplace downstairs and watch World Cup skiing and skating competitions, and they loved watching both winter and summer Olympics, cheering for both the Canadian and Croatian teams.
She learned to ski and waterski after they came to Canada, and in her later years even attended the Honda Indy to experience the thrill and roar of the race cars.
Mom loved soccer, cheering for Croatia during the World Cup matches. She enjoyed NFL and CFL football, read the sports pages in the Toronto Star every day and was able to have meaningful conversations with her sons-in-law and grandsons about anything sports related.
Nana’s grandsons were her pride and joy and she was their adoring and funny Nana, with whom they loved to spend time both at her home on Ruden Crescent and at the cottage on Isabella Island, on Georgian Bay.
She was the heart and soul of our family, the quintessential mother, wife and grandmother. She took great pride in her role as a homemaker and as a loving caregiver to every member of the family.
Mom took care of our father right up until a few months before he passed away at age 95, even as he declined with Alzheimer’s. She lived in her home until February of this year, shortly after her 96th birthday, when she moved into long-term care for the remaining few months of her life. She was the last original resident of Ruden Crescent to live in her home on that street.
Mom had a happy, cheerful personality, making friends wherever she went. She was energetic and entertaining, and her sense of humour and sparkling smile will be forever embedded in our memories and forever missed.
Donations in Mom’s name could be made to the Arthritis Society Canada.
Mom grew up in Croatia, living in and going to school in Zagreb, and spending her summers in Podgora on the Dalmatian coast of the Adriatic Sea, where her family had settled hundreds of years ago.
Mom was a voracious reader and developed a love of languages from an early age, including learning conversational German from a housekeeper in her childhood home, and later studying philosophy and literature at university in Zagreb.
It was as she started her university studies that she met a handsome young man who was studying architectural drafting in Zagreb and fell in love.
After the second world war, conditions and opportunities in Europe were not ideal, so Mom and Dad eloped in 1949, and left their homeland in 1951 to start a new adventure in Canada. Dad travelled over the ocean first, and Mom followed. When she arrived, life was very different from the one she left in Croatia. Having limited fluency in English, she took manual jobs to earn and save money, such as assembly-line work at a Toronto chocolate factory, and then later at Philco in Don Mills on Barber Greene Road, where she assembled parts for transistor radios.
They bought their first house, a two-bedroom bungalow in East York, in the mid-1950s and sold that house to buy the land on Ruden Crescent where Dad designed and built our family home.
After her daughters were born, she became a homemaker and devoted stay-at-home mom; she was an amazing cook and baker, making all of the delicacies from her homeland and passing down all of those traditions to us.
Mom returned to work in a part-time capacity when we were in our teens, working downtown for a few years as a media assistant for an audio-visual marketing firm called The AV House.
Mom was a big sports fan. On a cold winter’s day the two of them would make a roaring fire in the fireplace downstairs and watch World Cup skiing and skating competitions, and they loved watching both winter and summer Olympics, cheering for both the Canadian and Croatian teams.
She learned to ski and waterski after they came to Canada, and in her later years even attended the Honda Indy to experience the thrill and roar of the race cars.
Mom loved soccer, cheering for Croatia during the World Cup matches. She enjoyed NFL and CFL football, read the sports pages in the Toronto Star every day and was able to have meaningful conversations with her sons-in-law and grandsons about anything sports related.
Nana’s grandsons were her pride and joy and she was their adoring and funny Nana, with whom they loved to spend time both at her home on Ruden Crescent and at the cottage on Isabella Island, on Georgian Bay.
She was the heart and soul of our family, the quintessential mother, wife and grandmother. She took great pride in her role as a homemaker and as a loving caregiver to every member of the family.
Mom took care of our father right up until a few months before he passed away at age 95, even as he declined with Alzheimer’s. She lived in her home until February of this year, shortly after her 96th birthday, when she moved into long-term care for the remaining few months of her life. She was the last original resident of Ruden Crescent to live in her home on that street.
Mom had a happy, cheerful personality, making friends wherever she went. She was energetic and entertaining, and her sense of humour and sparkling smile will be forever embedded in our memories and forever missed.
Donations in Mom’s name could be made to the Arthritis Society Canada.