With great sorrow, we announce the peaceful passing of Walter Budnick at the age of 90, on October 23,2022 at the Dorothy Ley Hospice.
Leaving behind to cherish Walter‘s memories are his sons Darrell Budnick and Wayne (Susan) Budnick, Sister-In-Law Adell Budnick, numerous nieces, nephews, and friends. Walter was predeceased by the following family members: his wife Sarah Budnick, parents Josif and Anne Budnick who immigrated from Volhynia, Ukraine, arriving to Canada on the S.S. Fredrick VIII in May of 1929. Walter’s sisters Olga (Jim) Kutcher, Lilly (Fred) Terrick, Sally (Bill) Terrick, Mary (Mike) Moskal, his brothers Joe Budnick and Fred (Maureen) Budnick.
On May 10, 1932, Walter was born, in a small farm town called Alonsa, in the province of Manitoba Canada. He was known to have carried a Calf left in the field over his shoulders to safety on his own. Another well-known secret was his ability to rap bailing twine around his biceps and snap the twine in two. During the dirty thirties, Veterinarians were too expensive to hire, so Walter rolled up his sleeves and became the animal fix it man. He did all this work without any formal training.
Walter’s father, being a butcher and a crack shot, passed these skills unto him. He became an excellent shot, hunter, trapper, and amateur butcher. Armed with these skills, he put them to effective use, when bringing home, a newly slaughtered pig and butchering it on the kitchen table.
As a young man he worked on the Trans-Canada Pipeline, operating graders, bulldozers, horse drawn log pullers, used to clear the logs out of the woods during the construction of the pipeline. Used his Mechanical skill set to repair heavy machinery also farm equipment when needed.
During the late 50’s Walter came to Ontario where he met his wife, Sarah Bedrin. He did not see her disability brought on by Polio and married her on January 14, 1961. Walter was a devote Husband and father, he never left his wife side during her final days as cancer took her life. He never remarried or took on a girlfriend, but Walter became friends to all and loved by all who knew him.
Walter worked numerous jobs while at Caterpillar Canada Heavy Machinery Assembly Plant. During snowy mornings he get up to head out to plow the yard and road leading into Caterpillar before the employees started their shift. He learned to stick weld and was able to weld with both hands. His career ended after 25 years when Caterpillar pulled assembly out of Canada in the 90s.
Now retired in 1990, he spends his early days fixing up the family home, working in his garden with his green thumb, joining the Square One Old Adult Centre, for over 15 years as a Volunteer where he was running the Euchre Club. Having amazing Euchre skills, enabled him in September of 2013, to win Gold in the SGA 55+ Senior Games for District 20 and Provincial Gold in the same year.
Walter was known for his Favorite saying “Just Great,” in an a not so good Scottish accent that would make everyone smile. Another thing he was known for when you asked for help on a household project or car repair he would step back and say, “You know what you can do…”. The funny thing was a good part of the time he was right. During his joke telling, Walter would start laughing before he could complete the punch line (Like Red Skelton). Another funny thing about Walter is the older he got the dirtier the joke became.
In the end Walter fought a Blood Bone Marrow Cancer, Dementia and Alzheimer’s, his son Darrell was his primary caregiver while he was at home who also himself was recovering from open heart surgery. As Walter’s condition worsened, he was transferred from home to the care of the Dorothy Ley Hospice in Etobicoke. While in the Hospice he started to stabilize due to the care of the of the Doctor, Nurses, PSWs and Volunteer staff. He started to show more awareness and more life in his eyes as he became more stable. The socializing with others, he started to become more like himself. He would try to sneak a kiss on the cheek of one of the PSWs who the staff would lovingly call his girlfriend. He didn’t stop there he got all the staff to fall in love with him and make them laugh. Some days the Volunteers and staff would spend some of their free time with him watching TV programs and the Blue Jays which made it a popular place to be. In Walter’s last two weeks, one could see the effects on the staff as he started to quickly decline in health.
Our family would like to thank all the support we have been offered from all our family and friends, also all the staff and Volunteers at Dorothy Ley Hospice for treating Walter with love, respect, and dignity. Especially the way they aided our family and the passing of Walter.
Dorothy Ley Hospice is a non-for-profit organization, that depends on donations and volunteers to operate, Darrell and Wayne ask you to please donate to allow this Hospice to continue to provide the excellent care and respect they do at the great end of life services.