Frank + Francis Kriz

Francis Kriz:

Francis was and still is a long-time member of Our Lady of Lourdes Church and the Canadian Slovenian Cultural Society (CSCS). She volunteered for many years, for both CSCS and the Church, working at the many events, picnics and Folklorama.

Francis was born in Slovenija in 1932 and has been fortunate to go back to visit numerous times with her husband Frank.  Frank escaped and came to Canada alone, settling in Saskatchewan in 1956, before Francis and their three children joined him in 1960. Their daughter, Vida had met her father for the first time, as Francis was pregnant when Frank had left Slovenia. They moved to Winnipeg in 1972 and immediately became active members of the Slovenian community. 

Francis has helped out at the many picnics that were hosted at the farm every year. While two men worked roasting pigs and chickens, the women worked in the kitchen, peeling, cooking and preparing the potato salad, and chopping onions and cabbage to make the coleslaw. 

When Folklorama started, she continued to help out in the kitchen, cooking and/or preparing the various dishes sold at Folklorama, such as stuffed peppers, potato salad, coleslaw, and in the early years, Cevapcici. Often, she would take on the kitchen cleanup and washing of dishes, pots and pans. She also ensured that she always attended Folklorama to eat and watch the entertainment.

The church held many events and dances the years. The dances always had dinner and Francis often worked preparing and cooking food in the kitchen, serving the food and also cleaning up after the event was finished. Everything had to be cleaned up, put away, tables wiped, and the floors swept and washed.  She had a lot of energy back then and not only worked at the event, but took time to enjoy the music and dancing.

Francic volunteered when there was coffee and lunches after church. Usually, four to five people were needed in the kitchen. She had help from friends when it was her turn to buy and prepare food and coffee for lunch and also helped her friends when it was their turn to provide the coffee and lunch.

Due to age and various health issues, Francis had to withdraw from her volunteering.  She greatly misses the friendship and camaraderie, but still tries to make it to Sunday mass and hopefully new future events whenever possible.   

Frank Kriz:

Frank was and still is a long-time member of the Canadian Slovenian Cultural Society (CSCS) and Our Lady of Lourdes Church. He volunteered for many years, for both CSCS and the Church.  He has worked at the many events, picnics and Folklorama, as well as being active on the CSCS club, regularly attending meetings.

Frank was born in Slovenija in 1929 and has been back to visit numerous times to visit family and friends.  Frank escaped Slovenija and was very lucky to make it out of Slovenija alive! He escaped and was captured and held in a camp in Italy before being selected to work in Canada for the railroad.  He arrived in Saskatchewan in 1956 and worked hard to save money and buy a house so he could bring his family to Canada in 1960. When the family moved to Winnipeg in 1972, Frank became an active member of the Slovenian church and club.

Every summer during the picnics, he roasted a pig in a drum, turning the spit by hand.  There were often two or three picnics every year, where he was involved with roasting or working the bar. Later on, the club members had made a machine to roast and also turn the pig, which made it a lot easier to do the roasting. Two people usually worked, roasting 1-2 pigs and about 30 chickens. As more and more Slovenian people started attending the picnics, the group decided that a hall needed to be built at the farm.  All Club members helped out, including Frank, a carpenter by trade, who spent over 2 weeks building the hall.  

When Folklorama started, he also roasted pigs and chickens, 2 pigs and 30 chickens.  New equipment was also purchased to roast the chickens, so more chickens could be roasted at the event. For a while, they roasted the pigs and chickens at the farm and either brought the whole pigs to the church to carve up, or they cut up at the farm and brought to the church.  Later on, the roasting equipment was brought to the church and the roasting was done outside, behind the church. There were only a few club members that did the roasting.  He usually did the roasting once a year for Folklorama, but also performed other volunteer duties if needed.

There were church dances 3 – 4 times a year and many Slovenian people from the community came.  Frank worked at many of these, either behind the bar or setting up for the events.  He loved the music and dancing and only missed one event due to visiting Slovenia that year.

He also did a lot of work for the church, repairing anything that required carpentry work, much of this work being done in the church hall.  Among other things, he built the kitchen cabinets and the bar. 

Frank was involved in the CSCS, and enjoyed attending the board meetings, voicing his opinion and discussing items to help improve the organization.

It was a great while it lasted, but due to age and health issues, Frank had to limit his involvement and volunteer activities.  Frank had a wonderful 90th birthday celebration at the church hall in May, 2019, and remembers this fondly. Good friends, good food, not one but three accordion players, singing and much merriment. Unfortunately, he spent much of the time during COVID lockdowns in 2020 and 2021 in and out of the hospital, which was very difficult time for him, including a number of surgeries. He is now doing well and always says, “It’s a good day….I woke up.”  He hopes to live long enough to see his 70th Wedding Anniversary, which will be in July, 2022. 

He and his wife Francis moved to assisted living at Kildonan House in 2019, from the home that he had built and lived in since 1981.  During COVID, it was a trying 18 months for them and for many, however now things are finally closer to normal.  They are again enjoying life, going down for lunch and dinner, playing bingo, crib, going out for shopping trips and enjoying visitors again.

Frank and his wife Francis are very religious and attended mass weekly, except through COVID lockdowns and health issues.  They formed a strong bond with many people in the Slovenian community and the CSCS and church have been an integral part of their lives. Unfortunately, many of their friends have since passed on. They are happy and healthy, but both say, as many do, “when you’re old, nothing works like it used to.”

November 2021