Grandson of AB’s first Ukrainian settler celebrates 100th birthday

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There is no secret to living for 100 years, at least according to Sherwood Park’s newest centenarian, Al Starko.

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“To live to 100, have a lot of birthdays, keep breathing, and keep smiling,” the Chipman born retired optometrist joked at his birthday party on Wednesday, Nov. 27. “It evidently worked for me.”

The youngest of 12 children, Starko was born to a family with deep Ukrainian roots. The maternal grandson of the first Ukrainian pioneer in Alberta, Wasyl Eleniak, who came to Alberta to settle the land in 1891, he is proudly first generation Canadian. Eleniak is credited with helping to establish the Ukrainian community in Alberta and was honoured at a special ceremony in Ottawa in 1947 where he represented Ukrainians in Canada. Eleniak was among the first four Canadians to receive a citizenship certificate following the creation of the Canadian Citizenship Act. 

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“It’s a very big part of who he is,” said Maureen Murray, Starko’s eldest child.

After spending his early years in Chipman, Starko studied optometry in Toronto before graduating in the early 1950s and moving to Edmonton where he, along with two of his brothers, ran an optometry clinic in downtown Edmonton. It was at that clinic where Starko met his wife, Sophie, who he has been happily married to for more than 70 years. The couple moved to Sherwood Park in their later years to enjoy retirement.

“The real lucky part is that I married the love of my life. We’ve been married 73 years, which is almost three-quarters of my life,” said Starko. “I lived with my wife longer than I did with my parents.”

A father to five children and grandfather to 14 grandchildren and even more great-grandchildren, Starko’s love for his family was clear as nieces and nephews, along with close family friends gathered to celebrate the milestone birthday on Wednesday, Nov. 27.

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“He’s extremely proud of his children and his grandchildren. His grandchildren were very close to him, and still are,” said Murray.

In his early years, Starko was a Scout master, swimming instructor, an avid camper and loved skiing, which he did until he was nearly 90 years old. Still active at 100, he enjoys walking outside in the warmer months and tending to his tomato plants, of which he has a variety named in his honour, the Al Star Cherry.

“As a father, we could not have picked a better man. He’s loving and tolerant of all our antics, as we are of his, of which there are too many to list. He still has lots of advice to hand out and does so quite freely,” said one of his daughters addressing attendees at the birthday event.

Still enjoying his life with Sophie by his side, Starko said the best advice he has for living a long and happy life centres around love.

“I think you have be a person who can not only receive love but can also give love,” Starko noted. “I must have done something right to live this long and I don’t know what it was, but I just lived life the way my parents taught me to live; love others and do to others what you would expect them to do for you.”

tmacleod@postmedia.com
X: MacLeodTheodora 

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