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Born: 15 Mar 1895 - Ruketa, Ukraine Married: Thomas Kurilovitch 3 Feb 1917 Buffalo, Niagara, New York Died: 27 Sep 1955 - Niagara Falls, Niagara, NY
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 Stella with her youngest son, David |
Stella was born in the Ukraine,
in the
city of Lvov [L'viv]. She emmigrated to the United States with
her sister
Anna, sometime prior to 1917.
The family resided in several homes in Canada and then moved from Canada to Niagara Falls, NY in about 1923. They lived at 1624 Maple Ave. |
My mother told me her mom - she called her Ma, had a green thumb and could make anything grow. |
 Stella and her sister Anna Maslo on New Year's Day 1952 age 56 |
 ? with baby, Steve, Stella, Thomas Helen, David |
Two weeks before my mother Anne K. Woods died, she asked me
to make cabbage rolls in my new pressure cooker that she had bought me
for Christmas. I read the recipes in Betty Crocker cookbook and
in the pressure cooker cookbook to her to see if that is the way she
wanted me to do them, and she said - "Use that Ukranian cookbook" - so
I found it on my shelf, and opened it up, I don't think I ever had
opened it before - it was a gift to my mom, signed by Aunt Kay Maslo,
but more significantly - what came out of that cookbook were the
spirits of my grandmother and her sister and who knows who else - but I
felt them fill the room and attend me as I made that meal for my
mom. I am not a good cook - too impatient, so everything is
either burned cause I turn it up too high, or raw cause I don't cook it
long enough. But as I followed that Ukranian recipe, I could
almost hear my grandmother Stella saying to me, "don't rush - take your
time - this is how you show your family you love them." The cabbage rolls turned out wonderfully - and Mom really enjoyed them. Little did I realize that would be her last real meal there in the dining room. She fell out of bed that night and had to be taken to the hospital and when I brought her home, she couldn't walk so I fixed a bed for her downstairs, and hospice set her up down there. Mom died 10 days later, but not before one last Ukranian meal, with a little help from her mother. |
Thomas Kurilovitch
Born: 1 Oct 1891 - White Russia (Belaruse)
Died: 29 Mar, 1964 - Niagara Falls, Niagara, NY
 Back row: Al, Steve, George, Fred Middle Row: Helen, Anne, Thomas, Stella Front: David |
