Plan for the Future
Anisia Mirchuk, the daughter of Orest Makowsky and Victoria nee Markevych, was born 7(20) February 1923 in Mamayivtsi, Bukovyna, Ukraine, then part of Romania. She had one sister, the late Myroslava Paladij. She received her primary and secondary education in Chernivtsi and com-pleted her studies in Kolomyya. During the war she found refuge together with her family in Silesia (now western Poland) and later in Munich, Germany. Here she studied pharmacology at the Ukrainian Technical-Husbandry Insti-tute, and met and married her husband, the late Dr. Petro Mirchuk. The family emigrated to the United States in 1952 and settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she raised her three sons – George-Jarema, Roman and Ihor, and took an active part in the life of the local Ukrainian community. She was a faithful parishioner of Christ the King Ukrainian Catholic Church, where she was the chair of the church choir for several years, a member of the Women’s Marian Society and a devoted worker with the parish pyrohy project. She was active in the St. Basil School Parents’ Association while her sons attended school there; the 43rd Branch of the Ukrainian National Women’s League of America (SUA); the Philadelphia Branch of the Women’s Auxiliary of the Organization for the Defense of the Four Freedoms of Ukraine (of which she served as chair for several terms). She had a beautiful voice and used this musical talent by singing, in addition to the church choir, in the Vocal Octet of SUA Branch 43; the choir of the local Women’s Auxiliary of ODFFU; the Millenium Choir of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia; and the choir of the Philadelphia Branch of the Ukrainian Music Institute, where she performed several roles in various musical productions.
She devoted herself for many years to the care of her mother, Victoria Makowska (who was incapacitated by a massive stroke), then of her husband Petro, as well as to helping out her three sons. In her spare time she loved to work on Ukrainian hand-embroidery and paint Ukrainian ceramics.
Following a massive stroke in 2009, she moved to Whippany, New Jersey, where her son – the Right Reverend Mitred Protopresbyter Roman Mirchuk – was Pastor. Following a prolonged illness, she fell asleep in the Lord at home in Whippany late Sunday evening, May 26, 2013. She leaves three sons, one nephew and extended family in Ukraine.
Services for the late Anisia Mirchuk will be held in both Whippany and in Philadelphia. On Wednesday, May 29, the Viewing will be held from 7:00 – 9:00 P.M. at the Bradley-Braviak Funeral Home, 49 Whippany Road, with Parastas at 7:00 P.M.On Thursday, May 30, at 9:30 A.M., a Service of Christian Burial will be sung at St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Church, 60 North Jefferson Road in Whippany. The body will then be taken to Philadelphia, where that same eveninga Viewing will be held from 6:00-8:00 P.M. at the Nasevitch-Fletcher Funeral Home on Bustleton Avenue, with Parastas at 7:00 P.M.A Service of Christian Burial will again be chanted Friday, May 31 at 10:00 A.M. in Christ the King Ukrainian Catholic Church Church in Philadelphia, followed by internment in St. Mary’s Cemetery in Fox Chase.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Ukrainian American Relief Committee (ZUADK) – “Didusi and Babtsi” Project; the “Orphans in Ukraine” Aid Society; the Ukrainian Catholic Seminary in Khutorivka (L’viv), Ukraine; or to the Building Fund of St. John Church in Whippany, N.J.