Obituary of Allen Wayne Sushelnicki

Allen Wayne Sushelnicki was born to Andrew and Rose Marlene Sushelnicki in Regina, Saskatchewan on January 21, 1957.  The second child of four. Mom and dad moved often when we were young and each of us was born on a different street in Regina.  Allen was born on Montague Street and spent many hours playing street hockey with his many friends or catching gophers in the empty lots of Regina or going to the corner candy store with our older brother Clarence.  However, Dad wanted to move his growing family, off the streets of Regina and onto a farm near Hazel Dell, Saskatchewan around 1967.  Allen was in grade 5 then.  Notwithstanding the distance, Allen remained good friends with the Mushanski brothers who would often travel to Hazel Dell for visits.

At a young age, Allen had his own trap line and license to sell fur pelts.  Dad taught him how to set a trap, when and where to place them, and how to properly skin animals for their fur.  This was in the early 70’s and fur pelts were quite profitable.  In retrospect this seemed like a natural progression - for him to exchange running around catching gophers in Regina, for hunting and trapping muskrats and beavers on the Hazel Dell farm. The latter was more profitable!  During the summer he would walk the ditches picking bottles too.  This was amid hauling hundreds and hundreds of square hay bales with Clarence.  Allen worked hard.

He also loved to be outside hunting partridges and fishing at either Twin Lakes or Schutte Lake.  He didn’t have a boat but knew the places to fish off the shore. I caught my first fish when I was with Allen … he unhooked it and threw it back because it was too small!!  Yet often on the weekends, we would have fresh fish or creamed partridge for supper – thanks to Allen.

On more than one occasion, dad had brought home a handful of baby bunnies.  They were rescued from the brush fires that he often lit in the spring.  Allen showed me how to feed milk to baby bunnies with an eyedropper. … I’m hoping we never ate the rabbits!

He was a natural athlete and loved to play hockey and basketball.  Clarence tells of how dad took the 2 boys to the ice rink and gave them both their first pair of skates. Allen was a natural hockey player.  As well, he played basketball for the Preeceville Pats in High school and was honored to play in an exhibition game played against the Harlem Clowns. Even later in life, he enjoyed watching sports on TV and would often bet on which hockey team would win the playoffs.

But Allen didn’t like school and quit in grade 11.  This hard-working farm boy quickly got a job working in Sales at the Preeceville Macleods store.  He saved up his money and bought his first car which was a Chevrolet Monte Carlo.  He was very proud of the car and the fact that HE bought it with his own money.

He loved to go to parties and dances.  He especially loved to go to wedding dances so he could kiss all the pretty bridesmaids, eat free perogies and cabbage rolls and sample any home brew!  Those big Ukrainian weddings! …. Nobody knew who was really invited!

In 1976 Allen and 2 school buddies from Preeceville moved out to Penticton, BC to try their luck picking fruit in the orchards.  They all got tired of that pretty quick.  But while he was there, he met a waitress working at her dad’s restaurant.  He quit the orchards and moved into Vancouver to work as a cement finisher for the waitress’s brothers.  He worked hard and would proudly show his paystubs which documented how much over-time he put in.  He now wanted a house.  He bought his first house in Burnaby BC in 1978.  Allen was around 20 years old.

During this time, he and his girlfriend split up.  He was devastated and careless.  On July 10, 1980, Allen was in a serious vehicle accident which consequently altered the rest of his life.  He swerved to miss a lady backing up out of her Vancouver driveway and hit a tree.  The force of the impact threw a power trowel in the back of his truck, forward into the cab.  He received a massive head injury and was legally dead for several seconds.  He was on life-support in a coma in the New West Minster Hospital in Vancouver.  We were prepared for the worst.  The doctors told us that the longer he was unconscious; the more likely that he would be mentally and physically disabled. He was unconscious for three weeks. But he had excellent care in the hospital and he was a strong young man.  Clarence quit his job in Alberta and moved to Burnaby to live with and care for Allen.  

There was a slow steady progress as Allen fought to live.  He regained consciousness but the blow to his head left him a hemi-plegic (the left side of his body was semi-paralyzed).  He had to learn basic functions all over again – including walking and eating.  Mom went to be with him for a short while in the Vancouver hospital and tells of how excited he was when they started feeding him solid food!  His first food was a popsicle and he was laughing and drooling!  Allen was in recovery at the ICU and then rehab for less than a year.  During that time he saw other patients in similar condition, die beside him in that hospital.  It wasn’t Allen’s time to go yet.

He had total recall of his memory.  … but he never did remember the day of his accident.  That was a mystery.  So we got our brother/son back again.  But for Allen – for all of us - life was never the same after that. 

Allen struggled to accept his injured body.  He used to angrily slap his left hand or left leg and yell - “THEY’RE USELESS!”.  But amid his physical handicap, he was still determined and strong-willed.  I remember him telling me how hard it was when he was in rehab.  With his “bad” hand, he was asked to stack checkers one at a time, onto each other.  … and he did it!  Later in life, with his paralyzed arm, he learned to make lasagna and even butter tarts!  At one point he had a real estate agent come around assessing his house.  The agent commented how neat and clean everything was, and asked if he had a woman cleaning up.  Allen laughed.  No – he was quite capable of looking after himself. 

During the late 70’s, there was a sharp spike in the housing market in Vancouver, BC.  The modest house Allen bought in Burnaby in 1978,  was now worth twice the price!  Interest rates were escalating and by the end of 1981 were over 20%.  The cost spike hadn’t reached the prairies yet and Allen took advantage of this.  He sold his Burnaby house in June 1980 and bought an  11 year old, 3 bedroom house in a newer section of Regina, Saskatchewan.  Real estate agents fell all over him, paying for his hotel and meals to show off homes in Regina.  He now bought his second home and paid for it entirely – cash!  He was 23 years old and did this by himself.  He was very proud of this accomplishment. 

So Allen had a home and investments but didn’t want to sit idle.  He didn’t need to work but wanted to.  He had jobs at convenience stores in Regina including the Regina Hospital.  But he wasn’t satisfied with the jobs he was qualified for, now with his disability.  So even though he hated school, he worked very hard and in 1986 completed his grade 12 GED.  After that, he was able to land better jobs including Records Clerk at Indian Affairs and then lastly working at Sarcan. He received an award from Sarcan, that I now have.  It has three silver colored loons on a chunk of granite.  It is beautiful.  I remember asking him what it was made of and he laughed -  “it’s made of aluminum Gayle!... what else?”

Allen loved listening to music and had a large music collection.  When I went to visit, there was always music in the background.  … and the TV.  He was constantly watching what the stock market was doing.  He was a wise investor and was careful with his money.

Allen enjoyed people watching – especially children.  He had a bowl of candy reserved for his neighbour’s and friend’s children.  He had the time for them and enjoyed asking them questions and knew about their interests.  I heard him talking to one of Darren's children and he would often say “oh!,  well. …ya. …ya.”  As if this is life, and I get you.  And Allen loved to laugh at people.  He would often drill me to find some (usually stupid) thing I was doing and laugh at it.  Or to set me up, so he could laugh at me!  I remember when we were kids – he cracked a large nut and was careful not to crack it but leave it perfectly whole.  And then told me, dripping with sweetness, that he cared so much for me to give me this wonderful gift.  … and when I bit into it, it was rotten!  He loved to laugh at the reaction!!! … I wasn’t the only one.

He had many friends and would chat effortlessly to anyone. I remember driving him around on errands once.  He casually pointed at a city bus and stated the driver’s name, route and some personal event about him.  He listened to people.  He took interest in them – and they felt it. 

He loved to talk and laugh with friends, neighbours and family …and yet at the same time, cherished his solitude. He spoke highly of his friends and then would push them away.  Not because they had done anything offensive, but just that he needed his own independence.  He often said he was the black sheep of the family.  And I had come to accept that. 

Allen loved his music, sports, beer and smokes, loved laughing with or at friends and family, was hardworking and frugal.  He was fiercely independent and proud to accomplish what he set out to.  … And he did.

*****

Sometimes I thought he was weird … and told  him!! ...  but I always looked up to him and often told him I loved him.  I respected my brother for what he was able to achieve in his life – not with a handicap, but regardless of it.  I have a hope that I will see Allen again in the next life.  … but right now I miss my brother.

Gayle Sushelnicki