Obituary: Sandra Urbansky remembered for her kindness, selflessness and love of dogs

By MATTHEW STEPHENS

Those who had the pleasure of meeting Sandra Urbansky before her passing know that she was the kind of woman who put the needs of others before her own – a woman with unwavering compassion and love for the Birch Cliff community she called home.

“She was a very bashful woman who had a super kind heart. She was selfless to a fault,” said Sandra’s niece Kristi Holtam in an interview with Beach Metro Community News.

Urbansky sadly passed last month at the age of 79. A funeral service was held on Wednesday, April 1, at Beach United Church, where dozens of residents and their canine companions showed up to celebrate her legacy.

“I work with an independent funeral home, and what we created was basically a bespoke service where dogs were invited,” said Holtam. “We had a really beautiful service.”

To her surprise, Holtam said the turnout for her aunt’s funeral had far exceeded her expectations.

“Like, the turnout was nuts for a Wednesday afternoon; 60 people. I didn’t realize 60 people knew my aunt, who was solitary and kept to herself. I didn’t realize the sort of impact she had.”

Known for her love of animals, Urbansky and her Havanese-Shih Tzu named Panda built lasting relationships with many of the dog walkers who frequented Blantyre Park and the surrounding Birch Cliff community.

“She would sit in the gazebo at Blantyre Park twice a day with the other dog people and it was their community that they created during COVID. It was something that brought the community together, and it was something that I believe was almost a lifeline for my aunt during that time,” said Holtam.

Holtam said the community her aunt built with the local dogwalkers came at a pivotal moment in both hers and Urbansky’s life, following the passing of several family members.

“My brother passed at the very end of 2017 and my mother passed at the beginning of 2018, like six weeks later,” said Holtam. “It was hard on her because my mother was the reason my aunt came back from out west.”

Urbansky was born Aleksandra Sydoriak on June 30, 1947, in the Ellwangen Ukrainian Displaced Persons Camp in Germany. She immigrated to Canada at the age of five, working on a farm in rural western Ontario with her grandmother before moving to Toronto to be reunited with her mother Julia Sydoriak, who had moved to the country several years prior.

After reuniting with her mother, Sandra was introduced to Julia’s Ukrainian husband Frank Urbansky. Shortly after, the family of three welcomed two new members to their East York home; Terry and Olga.

As a decades-long East Toronto resident, Sandra Urbansky attended East York Collegiate Institute before promptly branching out into the workforce and beginning a lasting career with the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC).

“That was her first and only job,” Holtam explained. “She started as a teller and worked her way through the ranks.”

Urbansky’s dedication to the company brought her west to Cranbrook, British Columbia, where she continued to develop lasting relationships and leave an impressionable mark on the community.

The move was short lived however, as Urbansky soon returned to Toronto in 1973 to care for her sister Olga after a near-fatal car accident.

“It was an act that reflected Sandra’s enduring sense of responsibility to those she loved,” reads Urbansky’s obituary.

She continued to work for RBC while caring for her sister’s children (Kristi and Rob), becoming a “second mother” and playing a key role in their upbringing.

“She came back to care for my mother and became like a second mother to me and my brother. She was just an incredibly selfless woman,” said Holtam.

Urbansky continued to provide care for her parents in the later years of their lives, serving as a caregiver, translator, and compassionate advisor.

With an altruistic nature that extended beyond the four walls of their family home, Urbansky did whatever she could to assist her friends, neighbours, and members of the community.

“She left a legacy of kindness. She was just so peaceful, kind and sweet,” said Holtam. “The fact that she touched so many lives, I think it’s really important to me.”

In her free time, Urbansky was an avid reader, photographer, and most notably, a large fan of everything British: including literature, architecture, television and film. According to her obituary, Tom Hiddleston had become her British actor of choice in recent years.

Taking after her father and sister, Urbansky also found peace through the serenity of gardening, where her patient and creative nature shined brightest.

Although she was described as “fiercely independent,” Urbansky exhibited a warmth and tenderness that drew members of the community to her.  “Children and animals instinctively trusted her, and those who knew her will remember her calming presence, her benevolence, and her selfless heart,” read her obituary.

Holtam hopes that her aunt’s legacy of kindness and warmth can be used as an example for future generations.

“In 100 years time, I want people to be like ‘Oh, who was this person,’ and know what she did for the community,” said Holtam. “I think that, in a world that is just so filled with division, to meet somebody like her is just so rare.”

To read Sandra Urbansky’s full obituary, please go online to https://ecofuneral.ca/tribute/details/891/Sandra-Urbansky/edit-memory.html.