Katherine Honorof

December 15, 1935 - August 1, 2019

Katherine Honorof was born Katherine Haliechuk on December 15, 1935 to Frank Haliechuk and Nellie Strominski, (both Ukrainian immigrants & married over 50 years) beginning her life in a predominantly Ukrainian neighborhood of Toronto Ontario Canada. Katherine was sibling to, and the youngest of 3 sisters. She was preceded in death by her sister Mary Johnston in 1992. She is survived by one sister, Sonia Conte, and one younger brother, Rick Haliechuk, who still reside in Toronto. Katherine moved to California in 1955, settling in Los Angeles working in the fashion industry as a model in her 20’s, then the stock market, and at a construction firm named Morley. She met her husband, Frank Honorof while living in California who himself hails from Gary Indiana and had relocated to the Pasadena area of Southern California. Katherine remained a true and proud “Canuck” her entire life until her passing at her home in South Lake Tahoe, California on August 1st, 2019 of natural causes at the age of 84. She leaves behind her son, Darin and her grandson Adrian, age 12. Both miss Katherine’s grace dearly. To read more of the incredible story of Katherine Honorof In lieu of flowers, and if you care to make a donation toward the end of life expenses please visit the GoFundMe website and search Darin Honorof. Thank you and God Bless. The lives of Katherine, Darin and Adrian were uniquely intertwined as Darin was, for the last 11 years of her life, Katherine’s Caregiver, all 3 living at the family and paternal home of both Darin and Adrian. This intersection of 3 generations of life was one of the key sources of Katherine’s inspiration and strength in her success in defeating her diagnosis of cancer in 2010. The happiness of simply watching her son and grandson grow-up gave her continued enthusiasm for life over the next 9 + years. Just two years prior, in 2008, and just one year after the birth of Adrian, Katherine was determined to be legally “crippled” by an aggressive form of rapid onset scoliosis for which she was undergoing reconstructive spinal fusion surgery. By happenstance her cancer was accidentally discovered during a cardio/pulmonary-stress test and x-ray exam of her lungs in preparation for her spinal surgery. The scoliosis correcting surgery was put on hold indefinitely as she fought her cancer and subsequent surgeries, treatments, and illnesses. After discussions with Katherine, and to the amazement of her specialists, Darin elected to provide for her care in the family home rather than placing Katherine in a skilled nursing facility. This proved truly to be a blessing in disguise. Moving forward from the point of her cancer surgeries in June of 2010 and ongoing treatments, Katherine remained cancer free but suffered from the cumulative effects of ongoing and new illnesses, diagnosed during and after her cancer recovery. At the time of her death in 2019, Katherine suffered from and was receiving continuing treatment for no less that 3 distinct medical conditions, all of which terminal. Katherine also suffered debilitating and & crippling physical limitations resulting from a failed surgery on her foot in 2000. Additionally, restrictions caused by her severe scoliosis prevented her from walking more than a few hundred feet a week. Despite all these physical limitations that would ground the healthiest of souls, Katherine continued with her volunteer work at South Tahoe’s Barton’s “the Attic” even though now she was physically 8” shorter than her previous driver’s license stated and missing one lobe of her diseased lung. Katherine endured anything and everything in hopes of seeing her grandson graduate from South Tahoe High School. The care that she received while residing at the home in which she was determined to live and die was a true blessing for Katherine, Darin, and Adrian. The young Adrian provided absolute and undeniable emotional, mental, and physical assistance to his Father in the caretaking of his ailing mother. Darin claims that without his son’s spirit by his side, he does not believe he nor his mother Katherine would have survived the relentless and often grueling pace of regular visits to a primary care physician, 4 different specialists, and the ER room close to 700 times over the course of 11+ years. Adrian and his Grandmother shared a special relationship that even his Father had difficulty believing was possible between a boy the age of 3 and a 75 year old woman, her age when diagnosed with cancer. Katherine’s grandson Adrian never complained to Darin about the relentless amounts of time required for his father to tend to his ailing Grandmother, Adrian always provided her a laugh and a smile, and was witness to a cycle of life that defies words at the time of writing this, and has continued to defy description with words other than to simply say divine forces do exist around and amongst us, some of which we may never fully understand. There is now an incredible void that exists in Adrians life, one in which I even have trouble catching my breath to speak of. As of late I have chosen to try and think of the good times shared with, and had by Katherine. There was a close proximity not only between myself, my son, and my mother, but by all the people who were touched by the absolutely unbreakable spirit of the finest example of a human being, mother, parent, grandmother and friend many of us knew… Katherine Honorof. Those of us that are blessed enough to meet a truly angelic person only come away better for it and by it. I have heard it said that you never truly die or rather you may only die when people forget to speak of you. I think the bond between a mother and child may go even deeper than this. The memories of a person, their name, their smell, their unique indelible mark that they leave on you, on your soul and spirit resonate forever. I have these types of impressions of my mother that seem to identify and define me. If I were asked what fear does or what fear is, if such a completely and thoroughly meaningless and useless emotion really exists, I might try to undermine fear’s denial of life and love in the following way: I ask that all of you who knew Katherine during her 20’s and 30’s or her 70’s and 80’s or at some era in between, imagine her and recall her as YOU remember her presence, and do so honestly and without regret. If you want to sum up the effect that all the years of life had on my mother, Bob Marley might have said it best: “To fear love is to fear life, and the man who fear life, already 3 parts dead”. Katherine Honorof loved and is loved, feel it? I would hope for my mom, but mostly for all who are left with a memory of her, that her name be not simply and slowly, thoughtlessly or recklessly forgotten over the days and years ahead. The real tragedy and sure danger lie with those who have a memory or thought of someone that touched them, a story of someone to who they gave all, recollections of a time they felt love, yet fail to utter the words of remembrance for one reason or another. That’s my fear, which would be a fate that is unimaginable. How about everyone that loved Katherine take a small gamble and one day down the road remember to recount your own unique memory of her aloud to someone special in your lives? Can you do this for me? Could you do this for Katherine? Could you do this for yourself? Hunter S. Thompson said: “Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out and loudly proclaiming “Wow!, What a ride!” If there was ever such a thing as a sure bet, bet heavy that Katherine Honorof lived!