Obituary of Anne Mary Elizabeth Leslie

NAH, NAH, NAH, NAH

NAH, NAH, NAH, NAH

hey, hey.

Goodbye.

If you are reading this, it means I am gone. I wanted to write my own obituary because who knows you better than yourself?

I had the time of my life. Life was good, really good. I wish a few things had been different, but you can’t control everything but you can control how you react to it. I was born in 1950, two years after my parents Michael and Euvdokiah Malanych came to Canada from Austria where they had been taken by Nazis as slave labour to work in agriculture. After the war ended, immigration authorities offered them, as displaced persons, the opportunity to go to South America or Canada. I sure am glad they chose Canada. We lived in Waterford Ontario until 1955 and then moved to Cambridge, Ontario where we had a Ukrainian community at St. Mary’s Ukrainian Catholic Church. Children attended Ridna Schkola, Ukrainian School on Saturday mornings to learn how to read and write in Ukrainian dressed in our Ukrainian costumes for special occasions, and learned how to play the Bandura and how to dance traditional folk dances.

As a kid growing up, I wanted to be (in order) a cowgirl, a veterinarian, a dancer and a psychologist. But instead, I attended Conestoga College of Applied Arts and Technology and studied to be a journalist. When my husband Ed and I came east because he had gotten a job in radio broadcasting, I joined the Moncton Times Transcript as its entertainment editor and later became a general interest reporter where I was able to tell other’s stories, I moved on to association management work with the Multicultural Association of Greater Moncton of which I was one of the founders. I worked business, literacy, and fundraising. Some of the things I am most proud of include: as the executive director of MAGMA, developing a citizenship course for new Canadians and piloting the first HOST program for refugees in the province. I was responsible for matching the Peter Gzowsky Invitational Golf Tournament with the New Brunswick Committee for Literacy. The six years I spent as Lay Chaplain with the Unitarian Fellowship of Fredericton were spiritually enriching. Thank you to all the people who helped guide me. Over the course of my lifetime, I followed and studied a variety of religious paths. But for the most part, my philosophy of life was basically this:

Step over ants

Put worms back in the grass

Rescue baby caterpillars

Release spiders back into your garden

Open a window for bees to fly home

They are all little souls that deserve life too.

But the thing I am most proud of is our children, Lorissa and Nikolas who have become kind, compassionate and honourable adults. I am happy they have found partners with whom they are compatible: Nik with beautiful Melissa Morton who together have Diana (LunaMoona) and Lorissa with devoted Minh Tran who have a beautiful gift in son Liam.

To my husband of nearly 55 years, Edward Francis Leslie I say thank you for loving me the way I needed to be loved. When you smell the scent of roses you will know that I am nearby.

Goodbye to: to friends who have stuck by me through think and thin (you know who you are); to my family, my brother Michael Malanych (Heather Smith), niece Erin Malanych, grand nephew Myles Manuel and grandniece Madalyn Manual, brother Terry Malanych, nephews Tyler and Matthew Malanych, cousin Mary Malanych and cousins in Ukraine and Italy.

I will miss being torn from this earth, this beautiful earth. No more colours of fall for my eyes, the scent of spring wild flowers for my nose, the sound of wind and summer rain for my ears and hoar frost and icicles for my sense of touch in winter. I will miss whales and elephants and gorillas, birds and their sweet music. I will miss the unconditional love of pets. Gardening, it is said, is this purest of human pleasures. I agree with Ralph Waldo Emerson who said the earth laughs in flowers. Rainer Maria Rilke said: “Everything is blooming most recklessly: If it was voices instead of colours there would be an unbelievable shrieking into the heart of the night.” Such tender, wondrous beauty.

And finally, to those I may have offended, hurt or transgressed, please forgive me.

Arrangements have been entrusted to York Funeral Home, 302 Brookside Drive, Fredericton, NB. A Celebration of Life will be held at the Unitarian Fellowship of Fredericton in the Spring of 2026. Interment will take place in Burtts Corner Community Cemetery following. For those who wish, remembrances may be made to any animal rescue charity. Personal condolences may be offered through www.yorkfh.com