EUGINIUS JURCZYNSKI
May 28, 1951 – December 5, 2024
With heavy hearts, we have to announce the passing of Euginius Jurczynski on Thursday, December 5, 2024 at the age of 73. Eugen, as he was known by family and friends, was born May 28, 1951 in Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Germany. He was the youngest of six children in a polish family that moved to Germany. Being born into a poor family, he was always striving to give his family more opportunities. Therefore he grew up to be a hard-working, caring person. At just 19 years old he met 19-year-old Ingrid Wittmann and fell in love with her. Three years later both decided to get married and spend the rest of their lives together, always striving to fulfilling their common dreams. Up to his death, they have spent 54 years together, being married more than half a century. In 1975 they received their first child, Kerstin and completed their family in 1985 with their twins, Julian and Jessica. From starting in a small apartment. Eugen built two houses with his own hands and restored another one. All of this besides working full-time. He and Ingrid were working hand in hand always in pursue of their dream of living a better life. Next to his hard-working attitude, he did not forget the fun in life. He was always seeing the best in life, ready to party and joke, even in situations where his body was slowing him down and he must have been in severe pain. He never gave up, never. Through his siblings, who moved to Canada way earlier, he fell in love with this country. Many family vacations were spent here until he found his happy place in Mindemoya, on beautiful Manitoulin Island. At the moment when he was standing on top of a boulder at a lot on Pleasant View Terrace overlooking Lake Mindemoya he had his house and life mapped out in his imagination already. Even though kidney cancer hit him hard before his 50th birthday, he decided to not let the disease win and fought it well. From then on he decided to take his family to Canada and stay, creating the house and garden of his dreams on the lot. That’s where he lived until his death. He loved living in the nature and peace of “his Island” where Ingrid and he were well-known for their famous Schnitzel at the “Happy Moose” restaurant. He loved to spend the winters in Florida and Arizona as he really liked travelling the world, especially Spain. Due to his joyful nature, he had friends all over the world and enjoyed parties, tennis and pickleball. He also cherished his children and grandchildren, Henry, Jacob, Charlotte, Chihiro, Jaxon, Cooper and Levi and children-in-law Qian, Markus and Curtis. The moment where he was surrounded by his family made him happy. Always full of fun and joy and happiness. He was able to light up the dark, see the positive in every situation and raised his children to be hard-working, loving adults who are all very thankful for being raised and loved by their parents. Next to people Eugen loved dogs, especially dachshunds (Seppel, Charly, Zobel, Bodo, Caru, Eddie and Paula)who meant a lot to him. They just mirror him, being loyal and persistent.Unfortunately, the cancer came back with metastases after so many years. He fought for his life, surviving chemo and immune-therapy always willing to give his best. During the last months additional problems developed and unfortunately, he was not in a good environment to address his medical issues properly. More than once, he got told that he should realize that he had cancer and other issues were addressed only half-heartedly. Lately he developed pneumonia and a condition that gave him a hard time to breathe. But he wanted to live, he wanted to fight, he wanted to have surgery that would at least have given him a chance of feeling better although he had cancer. Sadly, he lived in a society that seems to put elderly cancer patients in a second place and never gave him the opportunity to have this surgery. He waited, he fought so hard, but he had lost the run against time. We are all devastated because we have never seen anyone fighting so hard, having such a strong will to live his life, enjoy every second with the people he loved and then losing because of no available beds…We will keep him in good loving memory, we will remember him how he was, a wonderful person, a fighter and the bravest human being we have met. If you think of him, laugh, cheer and remember his infectious smile. Dad, we love you so much. Thank you so much for being in our lives and being in our hearts forever! To honour Eugen’s memory, a Celebration of Life will be held on Friday, December 13, 2024 at 11 am at the Spring Bay Pentecostal Church, online viewing available at: https://www.sbpchurch.ca/online .
