Anneliese was born Sunday April 23, 1944 to Peter and Anna (Dyck or Dueck?) Wiebe in the Friesland Colony of Eastern Paraguay. Anneliese’s father, Peter, was born 05 February 1913 in Kiev, Ukraine and her mother, Anna, was born 28 December, 1919 in Siberia.
Anneliese was the middle child of nine; Herta, Peter, Henry, Anneliese, Waltraud (Trudy), Edmund, Rose, Bill and Margaret. Like her older siblings, Anneliese would have worked hard to help her family out, cooking, cleaning, babysitting, caring for the farm animals, clearing and working the land.
The Friesland Colony was founded in 1937 by dissatisfied settlers from the Fernheim Colony in the Paraguayan Chaco where Anneliese’s eldest sister Herta was born. The Colony formed when 144 families with 748 men, women, and children left the Chaco, thinking to improve their economic lot, a hope which was not realized. Families worked exceedingly hard to tame the jungle, clear and farm the land. By the 1950’s, Friesland was largely an agricultural colony. Seven acres of forest land and five acres of “high-camp” fit for cultivation made up a farmstead (Wirtschaft).
Later on, Anneliese’s family moved to the Volendam Colony in Western Paraguay. The Volendam Colony, not all that far from Friesland, was founded 1 July 1947. In 1950 Volendam had 15 villages with a total population of 1,810 in 441 families on 441 farms, and 8 elementary schools. Most of the land was heavily wooded, though fertile, and had to be cleared by hand. The economic progress of the colony was slow, and a considerable number of persons migrated to Canada, so that in 1959 the total Volendam population was only about 1200. It was in April of 1960 that Anneliese and most of her family immigrated to Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Her sister Herta, and husband Rudy, were already living in Waterloo. Anneliese’s sister Margaret was not yet born.
The Wiebe family first settled at 94 Avondale Avenue South in Waterloo. Herta and Rudy helped their respective families financially and by 1964 the Wiebe family was well settled. This was just in time for Anneliese to be married. It is such an interesting and beautiful story as to how Anneliese found her spouse. She put a classified advertisement in a Toronto newspaper and sure enough she received at least one response. Anneliese’s family have in their possession, the letter written by a Gerhard Otto Slavic, who preferred to be called Gerry. In the letter he describes himself and offers an insight as to what he enjoyed doing.
Gerry ended up travelling to Kitchener to meet the young, and determined, Anneliese. Just in case she was ugly, Gerry’s friend went with him. Anneliese must have passed the good looking test as they were married May 30, 1964 at Kitchener Mennonite Brethren Church. Their witnesses were Anneliese’s two brothers, Peter and Henry. Anneliese’s parents, Peter and Anna, and her siblings all welcomed Gerry in as one of their own. Anneliese’s Certificate of Citizenship is dated 19 December 1967, the same as Gerry’s. It was fittingly Canada’s Centennial year.
The young couple established their first home on Kent Street in the Little Italy area of Toronto where Bob was born in 1968. The young family then moved to Hazelglen Drive in Kitchener where Rick was born. Having moved to the Kitchener area in order for the kids to be schooled there, Gerry was literally struck dumb when he learned that they were about to have twins. You see, apparently Anneliese was having trouble with stomach ulcers. Yet, as it ended up they were not ulcers at all, they were two little bundles of joy by the name of Diane and John. They were born in 1980. All the children attended A R Kaufman Public and KCI (Kitchener Collegiate Institute) schools.
As a young woman, Anneliese had a number of different jobs. She worked in a number of factories including Kaufman Footwear (formerly the Kaufman Rubber Company) at King and Victoria Streets and The John Forsyth Shirt Company on Benton Street as well as New Orleans Pizza. Once the children were old enough Anneliese had her own drapery store entitled Ann’s Draperies at 124 Hoffman Street in Kitchener.
Sewing seemed to come naturally to Anneliese for she was superb at it. She was also a stupendous cook and baker. Her family’s favourites included meatballs, cabbage rolls, lasagna, schnitzel, Bob’s Rice, Bob’s Soup, sour (cream) buns, banana bread, as well as strawberry and rhubarb pie. She must have also made really good bacon and eggs as well as potatoes as Gerry loved both his mashed potatoes and bacon and eggs. He also loved Anneliese’s marble cake. However, news of Anneliese’s talents spread wider than her family as old neighbours still talk about her baked cheese cake. (Yum!) Given the times and places Anneliese grew up in, and lived, she was very good at saving and stretching everything. Nothing went to waste. Everything had a use and a purpose.
Of course, in order to be a good cook one has to have a good vegetable garden and so Anneliese did. To say that she had a green thumb is to minimalize her ability to nurture and grow plants. Be it indoor or outdoor plants, Anneliese could encourage anything to grow. As it has been said, Anneliese was a nurturer and a grower.
This not only applied to green things. It was the same with her children and her children’s children. Anneliese was the sweetest, kindest woman imaginable. Where Gerry was the disciplinarian, Anneliese was the comforter. She never yelled and was always calm. All she ever had to do was give her children “the look” (or threaten to tell their father on them) and they knew right away to start behaving. However, she was also the queen of the guilt trip. Whatever works!
She loved her trees, lilacs and white snowball trees. However, it was Gerry who loved to grow flowers, liking his daisies the best. Reggae Music, especially Boney M, Abba, Elvis, the Beatles, and Roy Orbison were her favourites – anything with a beat, anything with a saxophone in it. It had to be happy music! Interestingly enough, Anneliese was not a dancer though. But she did have something for men in uniforms. Hmmm! Anneliese was neither athletic nor interested much in sports. However, she did love to watch her children bowl.
Being with her children anywhere, or doing anything, was always special for Anneliese. Throughout the children’s childhood, the Slavics vacationed in Daytona Beach, Florida and many, many pictures were taken there. As Anneliese and Gerry started to age they loved to stay at the Aqua Terrace Motel and Tropics Sun Tower in Ormond Beach, Florida.
Having Anneliese as their mother and grandmother, her family were gifted with a continuous stream of love and support. Her best advice? “Whatever you do I will support you” and “family is the most important.” Anneliese’s deep and abiding faith, attending church every Sunday, as well as her earthly faith community (which included even singing in the choir) served as a rudder for her day to day life. Both she and Gerry loved to read the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ “Awake” and “Watchtower” Magazines.
Anneliese lived for her family and others. She seldom, to never, did anything for herself. Her grandchildren always knew there was a special treat in “Oma’s” purse for them. Little cans or bags of Pringles or Doritos were always on hand. Her family and her grandchildren specifically, are what have kept Anneliese strong through her numerous health issues during the last five years.
Perhaps Anneliese’s failing health started with Gerry having his first heart attack at the age of fifty-two in 1994. Perhaps it came to be too much when Gerry, in 2007, had his second heart attack and then was diagnosed with Parkinson’s and dementia in 2010. Whatever the reason, Anneliese ended up having heart surgery in 2011, a life threatening reaction to a medication in 2011, and then spending a year in hospital and kidney dialysis for the rest of her life.
Tragically, and sorrowfully, Anneliese succumbed to an infection on Tuesday, November 29, 2016 in her 73rd year at the Grand River Hospital, Kitchener. Beloved mother of Bob Slavic of Delhi, Rick (Shannon) Slavik of Kitchener, Diane (Darryl) Bolton of Ripley, John (Brittany) Slavik of Chesley and grandmother of Lahaina, Brennan, Heidi, Tyanna, Jack and Harley. Anneliese will be fondly remembered by her siblings, Henry (Clarice), Edmund (Rita), Peter (Karen), Rosemary (Ron) McAra, Waltraud Karges, Bill and Margaret. She was predeceased by her husband Gerry and sister Herta Reimer.
Visitation will be held at Rhody Family Funeral Home, Chesley on Tuesday, December 6, 2016 from 12 noon until the time of the funeral service at 1 p.m. Interment in Chesley Cemetery.
Memorial donations to the Kidney Foundation of Canada or Heart & Stroke Foundation would be appreciated as expressions of sympathy.
