Jaroslava Vasylyshyn, 97

October 02, 2018

Jaroslava (Stebelsky) Vasylyshyn passed away in her sleep at Hospice and Community Care, Mount Joy on October 2, 2018, weeks shy of her 98th birthday.
Born in Selo Kryve, Pidvolochysk region, Ternopil’, Ukraine in 1920 to Mykyta and Maria (Kupets’ka) Stebelsky, she had four sisters and three brothers.
As World War II approached, her entire family was forced to relocate by freight train onto the windswept steppes of Kazakhstan for six years because her brothers had inexplicably vanished from the town.
When the war died down, Jaroslava returned to a ravaged Ukraine. She helped rebuild and settle the town of Skalat, sang in the church choir and got married. A seamstress by trade, she was the steadfast wife of the late Mykola Vasylyshyn, a tailor. She was a selfless woman involved in the community who put the needs of others above her own.
On the 1993 New Year’s Eve she joined her daughter in Lancaster, PA, where Jaroslava became a citizen.
She enjoyed being with her grand and great-grandchildren. As an active senior citizen, she kept a garden and dabbled in herbalism. She exercised her mind with word puzzles and recited epic Slavic poetry.
She is survived by her sister Olya, her daughter Oksana Kerod, her son Mykhailo Vasylyshyn; her grandsons Andrii, Ostap, Mykola and Oleksander, and her granddaughers Olesya, Iryna Mychailivna and Iryna Petrivna and nine great grandchildren.
Jaroslava was preceded in death by her son Petro Vasylyshyn and granddaughter Lesya Blanchard, her sisters Stefa, Evheniya and Yuliya, and her brothers Wasyl and Pawlo. Her brother Petro paid the ultimate price in Ukraine during WWII.
Family and friends are respectfully invited to attend a Requiem Divine Liturgy at the Dominican Nuns Chapel at 1834 Lititz Pike, Lancaster, PA on Sunday October 14, 2018 at 1:00pm, celebrated by Father Mark Fesniak of the St. Andrew Ukrainian Catholic Church. Friends may visit with the family from noon until time of the Liturgy. Interment will be private.