Mom was born to Katie and Joseph Starcheski in 1926.
Katie and Joseph immigrated to Canada from Poland and the Ukraine. Not much is known about their story however, I hope as family read this and they can add what they know to be stories from Gramma.
Joseph worked on the Railroad which was directly across from their house. I often remember going there an watching the trains go by. Mom would say “go out and count the cars going by”. Gramma Starcheski’s house was a tiny house but she was a loving gramma. Gramma had a very strong Ukrainian accent – she would tell us stories from the “Old Country”. She called me Melenky which is what I think means “small”.
Gramma Starchesky loved to cook and bake. She had a root cellar and had an outhouse. She had a wood stove and when we stayed with her we slept in her bed under a feather tic. In the morning she would wake up early and stoke the fire in her kitchen oven and when we would get up, we would sit close to the stove and put our feet on the oven door to keep warm.
Mom had one sister Anne who was a couple of years older than Mom. Ann married Art Patterson of Shellmouth, MB. They moved to Abottsford and then Chiliwack when they were raising their family. They had two sons David and Murray who live in Vancouver BC.
Ann and Art were very close to our family. We visited back and forth over the years. I remember us all packing up in our Chevy and driving out to see them in the summers. Dad would drive and drive and hardly stop. I can’t image back then with four kids – no seat belts and both mom and dad smoking. Those were the days!
Jessie and Ann 
Mother Daughter shopping trip to Winnipeg. 
Jessie going on a trip. We remember mom saying that she went to London ON by train to visit Auntie Kay. 
Jessie standing in front of Starcheski house in Binscarth 
Katie Starcheski immigrated from Ukraine in 19??. She came to Canada to Angusville Manitoba where her sister’s had previously immigrated.