Bazar, Julia

BAZAR, Julia (nee Ostroski) - September 13, 1919 - April 24, 2010. With great sadness, the family of Julie “Baba“ Bazar wishes to announce her peaceful passing on Saturday, April 24, 2010 at Southlake Hospital, Newmarket, Ontario after a short illness. Although she went by Julie Bazar in her business life, eventually everyone knew her as Baba, the Ukrainian term for “Grandmother“, and she was Baba not only to her grandchildren but to all of her family, friends and acquaintances. However, her most treasured relationships were with her family. She was mother to Joy Marshall (Bill) of Newmarket, Ontario and Jon Bazar (Joan), of Montreal, Quebec, grandmother to Julia, Chris, Jennifer and Josh, and great-grandmother to Owen, Béla and Gavin. She leaves behind her younger brother, John Ostroski, her friend Janet Ostroski, and nieces Lovey Kotyluk, Diane Paquette, and nephew David Ostroski. Baba was predeceased by her husband, John Bazar as well as her older sister, Mary Kaben and brother, Mike Ostroski. Daughter of William and Christine Ostroski, Julie was born and grew up in Espanola, Ontario. She was recruited for the local girls' baseball team known as the “V-8 Girls“, as it was sponsored by the local Ford dealership. The team played all over northern Ontario, including the Manitoulin Islands and Killarney. She went to work in Toronto, starting as a domestic but moving on to working as a waitress at Woolworth's and, later, in the factory at Weston's and at Christie Biscuits. She also worked in the mailroom of the aircraft division of Massey Harris, where she and the other mailroom girl became known as “The Sweethearts of Massey Harris“. After two years in Toronto, she returned to Sudbury where she lived with her older sister, Mary Kaben, and worked at Murray's Restaurant on Durham Street first as a part-time waitress and part- time cashier, eventually becoming hostess. While in Sudbury, she met her husband, John Bazar, at a church party and they dated for about two and a half years before getting married in Montreal on a jewellery- buying trip for their new store. Together, Baba and her husband, owned and operated John Bazar Jewellery on Durham Street in Sudbury from the time they were married in 1947 until they sold the business in 1962, when they retired and moved to Long Lake. In its time, the store was the largest and most modern jewellery store in Northern Ontario, selling jewellery and china as well as giftware. Julie did volunteer work for St. Vladimyr's Church and for the Memorial Hospital in Sudbury. She was very much involved with the Eastern Star, where she was Worthy Matron. As the result of her fund-raising work for the St. John Ambulance, she was honoured twice: first as a Serving Sister and then as an Officer's Sister in separate ceremonies presided over by Governors-General Roland Michener and Jules Leger at Rideau Hall in Ottawa. In additional to the volunteering, she and John ran an art gallery while living a Long Lake. After John's death, she shared her time between living with her son, Jon, and his family in Montreal and with her daughter, Joy, and her family variously in Belleville, Ontario and Fort Lauderdale, Florida., finally settling with Joy in Newmarket. Baba's secret to the joy with which she embraced life was simple: she loved every bit of her life. As she expressed it, “When I went to a dance, I had a good time. If I went on a sleigh ride, I had a good time. When I went to Las Vegas, I really had a good time. Whatever we did - I had a good time. I don't regret anything.“ She met life head on, for better and for worse, and dealt with disappointments, hurts, illness and physical limitations with a combination of grace, good humour and Ukrainian stubbornness to her final chapter. We wish to thank her doctors and nurses at Southlake Hospital for their care and compassion throughout her surgeries and for her final care in the last weeks of her life. A memorial service in celebration of her life was held at Trinity Anglican Church, in Aurora, Ontario on Tuesday, April 27th. Baba was not big on funeral services and formalities but was very fond getting together with family and friends with good food and having a good time. Perhaps you'll go out with your family and friends - whoever is dear to you - and celebrate life and count your blessings. Most of all, tell the people you hold dear that you love them. In the end, that is Baba's legacy to all of us.