January 2, 1941 - February 3, 2023
Our Dad, spouse, Stepdad, brother, Grandpa, Uncle and well-respected friend, passed away peacefully at Surrey Memorial Hospital after a valiant fight with cancer.
Born in Mundare, Alberta, to a Ukrainian family, Evan was a true Alberta boy and loved living in the Crowsnest Pass. He enjoyed fishing, hunting, mushroom and huckleberry picking, camping, gardening and dogs.
After leaving school, he took on various jobs, from firefighting, surveying, to working summers at the Banff Springs Hotel. He settled at Phillips Cables, working the rest of his career in management at the Coleman and Vancouver plants.
After relocating to White Rock, BC in 1985, he retired in 1995. Dad met Dorothy Klevinsky nee Jones in Coleman, AB, and they married in 1968, becoming a blended family with her two boys, after she had been tragically widowed.
Music was always a part of Evan's life. He was President of the Surrey Branch #5 BC Old Time Fiddlers Association and enjoyed jam sessions and dances with his champion fiddler son, Mike, often playing mandolin and fiddle himself. He loved to dance, dine, and travel with his beloved Rose Marie in recent years.
Evan was predeceased by his sister, Sylvia, in 1939, his brother, Billy, in 1946, his sister Mary, in 1956, his father, John, in 1994, his wife, Dorothy, in 1997, his mother, Genevieve, in 2001, and his brother-in-law, Ron Kozler, in 2010.
He is survived by his partner, Rose Marie Patterson, Surrey, BC, his sons William (& Jayne) Klevinsky, Nanaimo, BC, John Klevinsky, Surrey BC, James (& Eddie Soares) Sanyshyn, New Westminster, BC, and Michael (& Tianna Lefebvre) Sanyshyn, Surrey, BC, his step daughter, Lorraine Patterson, and step son-in-law Rob Fofonoff, White Rock, BC, his step daughter Marla Patterson, Surrey, BC, his sisters Pat Kozler, Sparwood, BC, Betty Johnson, Coutts, AB, (brother-in-law Albert Johnson) and June Walker, Medicine Hat, AB, (brother-in-law Don Walker), his grandson, Michael Klevinsky, Errington, BC, his granddaughters Amanda Stewart, Campbell River, BC, and Olivia Klevinsky, Nanaimo, BC and many great grandchildren, nieces and nephews, chosen family, kind neighbours, grand dogs Molly and Hank, and a hungry family of backyard birds and squirrels!
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in his name to the Canadian Cancer Society. A celebration of life will take place in the future, date to be determined. Evan will be cremated and interred next to Dorothy at the Gardens of Gethsemani in Surrey, BC.
We will miss his selflessness, his grin, his sense of humour, his kindness, his love of animals, and his hospitality. Rest peacefully with the ancestors.
"You can shed tears that he is gone,
or you can smile because he has lived.
You can close your eyes and pray that he'll come back, or you can open your eyes and see all he's left.
Your heart can be empty because you can't see him, or you can be full of the love you shared.
You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday, or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday.
You can remember him only that he is gone,
or you can cherish his memory and let it live on.
You can cry and close your mind,
be empty and turn your back.
Or you can do what he'd want:
smile, open your eyes, love and go on."
Poem by David Harkins