Obituary of Alex Telidetzki

Alexander Telidetzki passed away at the Dr. Cooke Extended Care on Monday July 6, 2020 at the age of 90 years.

Alex is survived by: his loving wife of 60 years, Irmgard; his daughter Christine and Monte Armstrong of Lloydminster and their children- son Ryan and Chantelle and their daughters Genevieve and Adrienne, son Derek and Erin and their son Brady, son Tyson and Christine, all of Lloydminster and daughter Heidi of Saskatoon; his daughter Rita and Bernd Kern and their son Alexander of Germany; his daughter Karen and Calvin David and their children Emily and Joshua of Ponoka; his son Ken and Jana and Ken’s sons Kade and Karl and their mother, Bernie Noel-Telidetzki, of Lloydminster.

He is also survived by his brother Erwin and Gerda Telidetzki, his sister Lydia and Reno Bexte of Strathmore, his sister Ottilie and Dennis Woytkiw and his sister-in-law Darlene, all of Edmonton and numerous nieces and nephews.

Alex was predeceased by his parents, Eduard and Olga Telidetzki, his sister Frieda Czubyk, his brother Adolf Telidetzki and half-brother Paul Teledecke.

A private family service will be held on Friday, July 10, 2020 at 11:00 AM. If you wish to watch the live streaming of the service please take note of  the following instructions:
- Login to Facebook
- Go to McCaw Funeral Service page at 11:00 AM

Donations in memory of Alex may be made to the LRHF-Dr. Cooke Patient Comfort Fund, First Lutheran Church Lloydminster or Alzheimer Society.

The memorial card from Alex can be viewed or downloaded from the link below.

https://indd.adobe.com/view/08e3bbb4-6208-497a-a719-02e669597566

Eulogy for Alexander Telidetzki

We are here today to celebrate and honour Alexander Telidetzki, “Opa”, a loving husband, father, grandfather and brother.  To each of us here he invokes many fond memories and words.  He was loving, hardworking, loyal and kind.

Alex was born on May 17, 1930 to Eduard and Olga Telidetzki in Kostopol, Poland.  He was their first born of 10 children.  Being the oldest, he had great responsibilities and not much of a carefree childhood.  During WWII he had to help his family escape Poland with little but the shirts on their backs.  Before he was in his teens he had mourned the loss of four of his siblings.

After the war, he lived with his aunt and in 1952 he had the opportunity to immigrate to Canada with his aunt’s family.  He boarded the Beaver Brae ship on February 6th, 1952 and sailed from Bremen to St. John.  Thereafter, he took the train to Lloydminster.  His first job in Lloydminster was working at the Alberta Hotel cleaning the tavern after closing and making 10 cents an hour.  He always said it was a good job because he got fed two meals a day.

Alex worked hard and saved money to bring his family over to Canada in 1955.   His parents and siblings Erwin & wife Gerda, Lydia, Frieda, Adolf and Ottie all lived in Lloydminster.  On August 28, 1957 Alex received his Canadian citizenship.

In 1959, Alex met the love of his life, Irmgard.  Gerda invited her cousin Irmgard to come to Canada and Irmgard being young and adventurous thought “why not?”.  She met Alex and the rest is history.  They got married on February 26, 1960 and they just celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary.  Alex and Irmgard had lots of fun with family and friends.  They even made numerous costumes and dressed up for Halloween parties.  I’m sure Uncle Erwin, Tante Gerda and Tante Lydia can recall some of those good times.

Alex and Irmgard’s first house was on 57th street in the Cuthbert Subdivision in Lloydminster.  There were no water services in that area at the time so Alex had to haul water every day from the town pump. 

Alex received the best Father’s Day gift ever with the birth of his first-born daughter, Christine, on June 18, 1961.  Rita followed 2 years later.  By then it was time to move into a larger home for their expanding family.  In 1966 Karen was born and in 1971, Alex finally received a son, Ken, to carry on the Telidetzki name.  In 1975 they moved yet again into a larger home on 39th street.

In 1959 Alex made a career change to become an Auto Body Mechanic.  In 1963 he received his journeyman designation from SAIT.  He partnered with Dowain Fisher and together they started Lloydminster Auto Body.  They remained partners for 26 years until Alex retired on May 31, 1990.

With a busy career and family, Alex always took time for holidays.  Many camping trips to Radium Hot Springs and the Red Streak Campground with family and friends were always a summer hi-light.  Section D has probably never been the same since the early 70’s.   Alex and his family spent many weekends camping around the lakes north of Lloydminster with the favorite being Ministikwan Lake.  Alex bought a fishing boat and painted a lime green stripe around it.  The ‘boys’ at the shop named it “Dad”.  This area always had an abundance of blueberries and every year the family would go blueberry picking.  Sometimes the Edmonton family would join us and spend a day in the blueberry patch picking, playing and having a wiener roast.  In 1983 Alex and Irmgard purchased a cabin at Turtle Lake and many more memories were created there.

Alex and Irmgard loved to travel.  They went to Germany, Disneyland, Hawaii, cruises to Panama and Alaska, Costa Rica, The Dominican Republic, Mexico and numerous bus trips across Canada and the United States.

Alex gave back to his community.  He was a member of the BP Order of Elks for many years, a founding member of the Lloydminster German Heritage Society and he ushered at church on a regular basis.

Opa loved his nine grandchildren.   The first grandchild was born in 1984 and the youngest in 2004.  He also got to see three great-grandchildren.  Opa especially loved the baby stage.  He received great pleasure rocking and holding the little ones.  When he entered the Dr. Cooke Nursing home, Irmgard bought him a stuffed lamb named Susie and he loved to hold and rock her too.

At this time I would like to include some fond memories from family members.

Chris’ memory is about Dad working in the car repair industry.  “Dad knew cars. Yes he sure did. He could tell you the make, model and probably serial number of a vehicle from miles away. If we were ever talking about a car, he would ask for the description. And then just shake his head as I would say "oh it was blue or grey".

I would like to think I was partially responsible for Dad's longevity. About 33 years ago I convinced him to quit smoking.  I ragged on him enough that his smoking was harmful to his grandchildren. “

Rita’s special memory was going fishing with Dad.  “It was our time. Especially when I got our lines tangled. He always took it with a bit of Humor, even though it annoyed him.”

Karen recalls the time of the family accident. “Mom and Dad were leaving the Lloydminster-wide City Track Meet at Neville Goss School.  Mom was driving the station wagon and Dad was driving the little white Cricket car.  Dad ran the yield sign and hit the side of the station wagon.  No one was injured and it was a good thing Dad owned an auto body shop.”

Ken would like to thank Dad for being his number one hockey fan.  Dad was always ready and willing to drive him to early morning hockey practices and games no matter the weather, temperature or time of day.

My special memory: Opa always having mints in his pocket for us grandkids in church. Also, the old Grand Marquis car was always in "mint" shape and smelled like new inside.

Derek’s memory:  “One that makes me laugh all the time is Opa driving me to an activity. He would be pulling in or backing into a parking spot and go slowly until we hit something, like a tree. Opa would say, “Ompf...that’s enough”.  Not a care in the world.”

Tyson’s memories:  “I’m not sure where or when the tradition began but at every family get together we would take pictures of Opa with different things on his head, ranging from a backwards ball caps, to fuzzy pink top hats, to Buko hats, to teddy bears and even a decorative arrangement of fake fruit. He truly was a great sport in the fun we had dressing up his bald head.

Opa would always tease us as kids. We would be sitting in the living room watching TV at Oma and Opa’s and one of us would look over at Opa and he would pop his teeth out with his tongue and grin. Before we could rush over to his chair to get a closer look, he would have  popped them back in.  When we questioned Opa how he did that, he would say “I didn’t take my teeth out, look” and then he would give them a little tug to prove it.  Like magic, his teeth wouldn’t move. That one got me for years.”

Heidi’s memory:  “Opa and Oma loved to dance, a gift they passed down to at least a few of their grandchildren. One year at a Ukrainian dance recital, Derek’s group performed a dance from the Volyn region. The music woke Opa right up from a little snooze and he said “oh Volhynia Volhynia!” We were a bit surprised to learn that Kostopil, where Opa was born in Poland, is now part of Ukraine. The music from the region sparked that memory for him, and after years of being the non-Ukrainians in the dance group, I felt a bit more connected to a small part of Ukraine. Volyn will always be one of my favourite regions to dance and teach.

Kade and Karl’s memory about Opa was when they were younger. “Before Opa and Oma left their house one time, the twins put on his hat, shoes and cane and walked around the house falling over each other.  Opa laughed so hard his false teeth fell out.”

Alexander’s special memory:  “Opa was always full of love. Although I could not see him that often, I remember a lot of good memories. As a younger kid, I always went with Opa grocery shopping and to see the big John Deer tractors in Lloyd. When we would walk somewhere, I used to walk by his side and If I walked too fast for him he would always say in German: “Langsam voran, sodass die Gesellschat mitkommen kann.“ Which means in English: “Walk slower so that everybody can come along.”  Last Summer in Canada I saw Opa for the last time. We visited him very often in the Dr. Cooke Nursing Home and sat with him outside in the sun. It was always nice to take his hand because despite that he didn't talk a lot anymore, he always grabbed my hand and held it.

Emily and Josh loved their trip to Disneyworld with Oma and Opa.  Opa had a wheelchair to get around in and it benefitted all of us.  Opa didn’t have to walk all over Disneyworld and the wheelchair allowed us to move to the front of many lines.  Thanks Opa!

Alex’s 90 years of life were filled with many world events and technological advancements but for Alex what mattered most to him was family.  Throughout his life he worked hard and put his family first because he loved them very much. 

Eulogy by Lydia Bexte

Our Brother, Alexander Telidetzki, was the first of 10 living children born to our parents.  We also had 4 siblings who did not survive.  Alex was born on May 17, 1930 in Kostopol in the Volyne region of Poland, which is now Ukraine.

Our parents were married in, and lived in, Kostopol.  When Hitler gained power in the 1930s, Hitler made a pact with the communist Russians to take all of the Germans in Russian back to Germany.

On Christmas Eve 1939, our family was put on a train to Germany.  We stayed for 9 months in a refugee camp call Rommelsburg.  From there, we were placed on a farm in German occupied Poland without our Father.  The German army held my father back to fight.  This left our Mother, with our Brother Alex at her side, to manage the farm.  Our Dad was allowed to visit every 2nd year, and every 2nd year our Mom had another Baby! By 1944 the last baby was born.

We did not get very much schooling, but we were very lucky that some German soldiers stayed with us and taught us to read and to write.  They taught us Christmas poems and it was the nicest Christmas of our childhood.

But then 1945 changed everything for our family.  The Russians broke through the Weidel River in Warsaw and were attacking us from behind.  Late at night on the 17th of January, 1945, we fled the farm by horse and buggy.  Alex, the oldest at only 15 years old, had to grow up very, very fast.  Our Father was still in the army, so our Mother and Alex, driving the horses day and night for 3 days, took us away as far and fast as they could go.

On our 3rd day of fleeing our baby Brother died.  To stop and bury him would risk all of our lives, so we placed him in a suitcase and carried him with us for many days.  It was winter, and I still remember how cold we were.  Eventually, we came to a Red Cross Station and we left our baby Brother there, where they promised they would bury him for us.

We continued on for 4 weeks and eventually were placed in a small town near Brandenburg.  We witnessed the Russians coming in, taking over everything, raping women and taking our horses.  We were all very scared.  The husbands were all gone – still in the Army, and we were alone.  Eventually, the Russians took everything from all of us and it became the Russian Zone.

We moved to Wittenberge where our Uncle lived.  Our Father, who had been in a Russian prison in Austria was released and joined us there.  Wittenberge was an industrial city, and our Dad and Alex got jobs in a paper factory.  Their job was to take the machines inside the factory apart so the Russians could send all of the machines back to Russia.

We were afraid the Russians would take Dad and Alex to Russia to put the machines back together – so at 17 years old Alex was sent to West Germany to live with our Aunt to be out of the reach of the Russians.

Seven of us lived and slept in the same room then – with no running water and no toilet.  When our Mom had her 10th baby our Dad’s workplace gave us a little bit bigger quarters.

In 1952, along with his cousin and Aunt and Uncle, who he had been living with, Alex came to Canada, where he stayed the rest of his life.  He was so happy to be in a peaceful land, that before long he helped his parents, 6 of his siblings including me, and our sister-in-law come to Canada where we were also very happy.

In Canada, Alex worked in an auto body shop.  He liked this and in 1955 he went to school in Calgary, and apprenticed there, eventually getting his Auto Body ticket.  He and a friend opened their own Auto Body shop – we were all so proud of him – and loved working there right up until he retired.

In 1960 Alex married Irmgard and together they raised 4 beautiful children.  Those children gave Alex and Irmgard many grandchildren whom they treasured.

In his later years Alex wasn’t well, but when I looked at him, I only saw the strong, caring big Brother I loved so much.