Janina Sawczyk's Obituary
Janina Iwanow was born on September 11, 1932, in the village of Polany, Rovenskaya Oblast, Ukraine to Ivan Iwanow and Anastasia Starovoit Iwanow. When rumors of war circled through Europe, the young family with four children under the age of six immigrated to Argentina through Poland and boarded the ship Jamaique from Havre, France –arriving in the port of Buenos Aires on December 1, 1938. The Iwanow’s settled in La Escandinava, Mendoza where they found others whom they had known in Ukraine, and a small church congregation was formed. Janina’s father became the Pastor of that church. She attended regularly and at the age of fourteen took water baptism in a drainage-channel of the nearby farms.
Her father was also an entrepreneur and they moved around, living in various places, while the family grew to a total of ten kids (two of whom died young). Janina is the oldest of eight surviving siblings: four were born in Ukraine and four were born in Argentina. In 1953, Janina’s mom passed away from an unknown illness, and soon she took over the duties in the care of the home and of the children. She began her life-time career in sewing in 1951, eventually moving to Buenos Aires, in 1955 where she took a job in a textile factory called Peinafil, in Ramos Mejia. She took advantage of overtime and extra-workday opportunities, saving money to buy fabric and necessities to take back to Mendoza on her vacation from work. While visiting her family, she sewed clothes for all her siblings and took care of what they needed. She eventually brought three of her siblings to live with her in Buenos Aires.
Janina and Esteban came to Buenos Aires around the same time, met on their way to a “mateada” that the Youth group would have between Sunday’s services, and began a friendship that would last a lifetime! On September 17, 1960, they were wed, as the first couple to be married in the church’s new location on Ombu Street, by Pastor Juan Winiczek. Daughters Nancy and Lilian were born in the next five years; and in another five years they planned on immigrating to the United States of America, where they arrived at JFK Airport, New York in 1974.
They settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and attended Pastor Emil Dege’s church. Not knowing the English language nor the customs of their new country, they felt lonesome for
relatives. In the summer of 1975, they packed-up their few belongings and drove across the USA to live closer to family in Los Angeles. Before that year was over, the family relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area, where Esteban found a job.
Besides working in the textile factory in Argentina, Janina had several interesting jobs in her lifetime: in Buenos Aires, she worked for Yaravi, a company that made TV flybacks; in Philadelphia as well as in Los Angeles, she worked for tailor shops, including Joseph Cohen & Sons; once she moved to the Bay Area, she worked at See’s Candies, then Drape Makers—a company she and her partner eventually bought and ran for several years—followed by many years at Nordstrom in the Tailor Shop, from where she retired in the 2000s. After retirement she dedicated herself to the care of her three grandsons, who affectionately called her “Nona.”
Janina was a faithful member of Christians of Evangelical Faith church, where she participated in hospitality, choir (for a brief time), preparing and sending parcels to the needy, and the Monday evening Women’s Prayer—she continued to attend until the pandemic hit in 2020.
Although she had many medical problems and countless surgeries over the years, Janina’s greatest suffering was the progressing hearing loss. After taking a fall in October of 2021, a steady decline of increasing heart, lung, and cognitive skills failures set on. She remained talkative and engaging until her last day, often praying, and singing into the night. On Sunday July 3rd, just before the sun rose that morning, angels transferred Janina from earth and she watched the sunrise from heaven, as she perfectly heard Jesus calling her name…
She leaves behind her devoted husband of 62 years, Steven, daughters Nancy (Paul) Dubuk and Lilian (Dan) Shevchenko, and grandsons: Nathan and Nicholas Dubuk, Ryan Shevchenko; surviving siblings: Elvira Rizsko, Pedro (Olga) Iwanow, Daniel (Alicia) Iwanow and Sarita (Ricardo) Gonzalez and countless nieces and nephews with their families. She is preceded in death by her parents and older sister Alejandra (Ukraine) and brother Juancito (1944), brothers Alejandro (2005) and Wladimiro (2018), sister Nadia (2019) and brother-in-law Pablo Rizsko (2021), along with niece Ruth Loreiro (2007) and grand-niece Micaela Riszko (2017)
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