Petar Granić

A Life Full of Many Blessings

After a life full of many blessings, we announce the passing of Peter Granic at age 91. He was a soft-spoken man and a dear husband, father, grandfather, uncle, cousin and friend.

Peter leaves behind his loving wife of 61 years Angela, son Slavko of Ottawa, daughter Tonka Bobeta (Srećko) of Toronto, son Peter (Kata) of Toronto, brother Slavko of Waterloo, grandchildren Duje, Kristian, Antea, Anton, and Marina, and over thirty nieces and nephews and their families in both Canada and Croatia. He was predeceased by his parents Ante and Ana, and siblings Ivan, Jozo, Iva, Marija and Tonka.

He was a former member of St. Anthony Daniel Parish in Kitchener, a member of Holy Family Croatian Parish in Kitchener (Bridgeport) and a member of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Waterloo.

Peter was the youngest of 7 children born in the impoverished Upper Granic hamlet (Gornji Granići) in the village of Dobrinče and parish of Medov Dolac, Imotski region, Croatia.

Growing up during the perilous and chaotic WWII period when five hostile armies operated on Croatian territory, his family faced immense hardship. Due to serious privation and in the hopes of surviving, part of the family was forced to split apart and move to the town of Bjelovar, where Peter lived for a few years. Following the war and with the little primary schooling he received under difficult wartime conditions, he began to work on various construction jobs far away from his home in order to help his family make ends meet.

In 1957, following the Feast of the Assumption and a year after the passing of his mother, Peter, his brother Slavko and a group of young Croatian men escaped on an overnight trek by foot through the Slovenian Alps. The group slipped past Yugoslav border guards, and into Austria where Peter and his brother became refugees. He remained for 10 months in a refugee camp in the town of Feffernitz. While living in the refugee camp he received word that his father had died.

Peter was forever grateful for the resettlement services of the Catholic Church in Canada that sponsored him out of the refugee camp with a ticket to board the passenger liner SS Arkadia.

His daunting first steps onto Canadian soil and into the unknown were in Montréal, where he landed on June 25, 1958. He then departed on a train destined for Hamilton. Upon arrival in that city he was given $15 to pay for his initial accommodation in his new adopted homeland Canada.

From this difficult start, but with a strong hope and determination to build a better future, he began his new immigrant life in Canada.

Struggling with the transition into a new life in Canada with no knowledge of English, he initially worked in Hamilton and Strathroy. He and his brother Slavko then moved to Winnipeg in the hopes of landing work in their trade as bricklayers and stone masons.

In early 1959, seeking steady work and better wages, he moved to the far north to the Keno Hill mining camp outside the small, remote community of Mayo, Yukon. There he worked as a miner for the United Keno Hill Mines company for almost 2 years in their Calumet mine.

In December 1960 he departed Yukon for Winnipeg to join his brother Slavko who had begun working in the bricklaying trade. They proceeded to work on job sites throughout Manitoba and Saskatchewan. During part of that period in Winnipeg, Peter worked during the day while attending night school English language classes in the evening.

In January 1964, Peter married his wife Angela who had joined him in Canada from Tübingen, Germany where she had been working after having left Croatia one year earlier. Through the next 4 years he would be blessed with the arrival of his 3 children.

In particular, the birth of his daughter was a moment where he demonstrated a level head in the middle of a cold winter night in Winnipeg. He calmly delivered his daughter that night when Angela’s labour had come on so quickly that there was no time to drive to the hospital nor wait for the ambulance to arrive.

Peter, his brother Slavko and their young families moved to Kitchener-Waterloo in 1966. There, he and his brother established their construction firm.

Peter took great pride in his work with Granic Brothers Construction, and it was not an overstatement to say that he enjoyed working honestly by the sweat of his brow. There was no job or task that was beneath him on the construction site. Even during tough times when the economy was in a downturn, he still employed his sons and nephews full-time during the summers of their student days, paying them good wages and more importantly instilling in them a good work ethic. He always had an eye to notice when one of them struggled with keeping up with their labouring tasks and would never hesitate to pitch in and help them bring those last set of bricks or mortar up to the top scaffold.

Building their company through classic immigrant hard work, Peter and his brother Slavko completed many masonry brick and block laying projects throughout Waterloo and Wellington regions. They were first on the job site and the last to leave. Developing a solid reputation, Granic Brothers Construction ventured into additional side projects building high quality custom homes and a few low-rise apartment buildings, primarily in Waterloo.

The ability of Peter and his brother to dust themselves off when some of these homebuilding projects went sour during economic downturns was a great example to their children not to be afraid of failure. Sometimes the homebuilding projects worked out well, sometimes it was a struggle to turn a profit, and a few times they took a hit financially.

Peter maintained strong family ties with his brother Slavko and sister Iva Raos in Canada, and he loved his nieces and nephews like his own children. Peter also helped to sponsor a few of his other family members to come to Canada, and helped them gain their initial bearings in their new country.

And although it wouldn’t quite qualify for Mother Teresa’s playbook, he would regularly corner his kids, grandkids, and sometimes even nieces and nephews, forcing them to accept a cash gift because they were students, or because they’d driven a far distance and spent too much money on gas, or because they were about to head on a vacation that they couldn’t possibly afford.

Peter would admit he wasn’t a saint, but he tried to remain a practicing Catholic. From attending the small Sunday mass when visited by the travelling priest at the Yukon mining camp, to hosting in his Winnipeg home a Croatian missionary priest from Regina, to taking his family to a local Sunday mass when they were on a long weekend Sauble Beach getaway, to sitting and occasionally dosing off in his regular front row pew at his local Croatian parish, to watching Daily TV Mass during the pandemic, he remained committed to his faith.

He always led his family in saying grace before meals, and family members knew this could easily become something more than a quick prayer, and often a prayer fest especially during holidays and feast days. Before some of those sessions, he would lead his family in praying for their health and well-being, praying for dearly departed souls, asking for help for a family member or friend who was suffering with an illness or had a special need, seeking God’s help for his birth country of Croatia, or some other prayer request he felt was needed. Each session would set off a string of Our Fathers, Hail Marys, and Glory Bes, often causing his wife Angela to complain that the soup had gotten cold at the expense of a far too lengthy prayer set.

Peter’s Croatian identity remained an important part of his soul. The many challenges Croatia and its people faced throughout the centuries and the dream of independence handed down from generation to generation left a deep imprint on him. Immediately upon his arrival to Canadian shores, he joined Croatian Canadian organizations dedicated to keeping alive the hope of freedom and democracy for the old homeland. Already during his time in Yukon, he became a regular subscriber to Croatian diaspora cultural reviews, newspapers and publications, including a 3 decade-long subscription to a weekly newspaper and annual almanac published in Chicago.

During his time in Winnipeg, Peter worked with others in pursuing the establishment of a Croatian parish with the archdiocese, but which was only formed after he moved to Ontario. A founding parishioner of the Croatian church in Kitchener, he was a member and supporter of many local chapters of Croatian community organizations in both Winnipeg and Kitchener.

He could always be counted on to volunteer and give material support, including working for free on renovations to the K-W Croatia Club in Breslau and donating to the establishment of the Chair of Croatian Language and Culture at the University of Waterloo. In 1974, Peter enrolled as a member of the Croatian National Congress at its founding, and he maintained that membership until the organization was dissolved following the first multi-party elections in Croatia.

Throughout the years he donated to many causes including support of Croatian dissidents, the Church behind the Iron Curtain, and especially donations for humanitarian causes to assist Croatia in its care for orphans, displaced persons and refugees, the wounded, and for rebuilding projects in the martyred city of Vukovar during Croatia’s difficult road toward independence during the early 1990s.

He could never stop caring for or loving the land of his birth. One of the happiest days of his life was witnessing the birth of a free and democratic Croatia that generations of its people had dreamed of.

In 1995, Peter made his first of two return trips to Croatia. He was finally able to pay his respects at the graves of his parents and ancestors, to once again see the village of his birth, to visit with his brother and sister and surviving aunts and uncles remaining in that country, along with nieces, nephews, in-laws, and other relatives and friends from his childhood and youth.

Peter has never expressed a complaint or uttered an unkind word about Canada. He deeply loved, praised, and remained forever grateful to Canada and the freedom and opportunity that the country provided him and his family. He instilled in his children a deep love of and respect for Canada. At one of the lowest points in his life, when his refusal to join the communist party meant he had no discernable future in the land of his birth, when he was branded a criminal for escaping a communist-run state, when he was a stateless refugee stuck in uncertain limbo with not a cent to his name and only the clothing on his back, when he received the devastating word of the death of his remaining parent coupled with the trepidation over an unknown future, it was Canada that provided a ray of sunshine and hope for the promise of a better future.

Peter was blessed to live a long life. Individuals he met while a refugee in Austria, when he worked in Yukon, lived in Winnipeg and finally settled in Kitchener-Waterloo remained life-long friends even when they moved elsewhere in Canada, the United States or to other continents.

He experienced the joy of his children’s marriages and the arrival of his grandchildren. He remained stoic in dealing with many hardships over the years, including during these last few years when his health began to deteriorate more quickly. He never complained or wanted his family to know that he was having difficulty. The ups and downs that all couples and families face were always met square on by Peter and his life partner Angela. Each drew strength from the other and remained steadfast in their mutual support, especially during health challenges. He remained proud of his three children, always gave them the benefit of the doubt, and remained appreciative of the love they had for him in return. His presence will be greatly missed by his wife Angela, children, and entire family.



May he rest in eternal peace.



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Petar Granić

15. listopada 1933. - 19. veljače 2025.

život ispunjen mnogim blagoslovima



Nakon života ispunjenog mnogim blagoslovima, s tugom u srcu javljamo da je Petar Granić preminuo u svojoj 92-oj godini, te se pridružio svojim roditeljima (Ante i Ana) i sestrama i braći (Ivan, Jozo, Marija, Iva i Tonka) u kraljevstvu nebeskom.

Iza Petra ostaju ožalošćeni njegovi najmiliji: supruga Anđelka (61 godina), sin Slavko (Ottawa), kćer Tonka Bobeta sa suprugom Srećkom (Toronto), sin Petar sa suprugom Katom (Toronto), brat Slavko (Waterloo), unuci Duje, Kristian, Antea, Anton i Marina, kao i mnoštvo nećaka i nećakinje sa svojim obiteljima diljem Kanade i Hrvatske.

Petar je bio blage naravi i dobar suprug, ponosan otac, djed, stric, oslonac svim rođacima i prijateljima, bio je mnogo toga raznim ljudima koje je sretao.

Kao najmlađi od sedmero djece rođenih u siromašnoj seljačkoj obitelji u zaselku Gornji Granići, u selu Dobrinče i župi Medov Dolac (Imotska krajina, Hrvatska), odrastajući u pogibeljnom i kaotičnom razdoblju Drugoga svjetskog rata kada je na teritoriju Hrvatske djelovalo pet neprijateljskih vojski, on i njegova obitelj suočavali su se s ogromnim nedaćama. Zbog velike neimaštine, uz ogromnu volju za preživljavanjem, dio obitelji bio je prisiljen razdvojiti se i preseliti u grad Bjelovar, gdje je živio nekoliko godina. Nakon rata i s nešto završene osnovne škole koju je pohađao u teškim ratnim uvjetima, počeo je raditi u ranoj mladosti na raznim građevinskim poslovima daleko od svog doma kako bi pomogao svojoj obitelji.

Godine 1957., nakon blagdana Velike Gospe i godinu dana nakon smrti njegove majke, on, njegov brat Slavko i skupina hrvatskih mladića pobjegli su noću kroz slovenske Alpe. Skupina se provukla pokraj jugoslavenskih graničara i ušla u Austriju gdje su Petar i njegov brat postali izbjeglice. Ostao je 10 mjeseci u izbjegličkom logoru u gradu Feffernitzu, gdje je primio vijest o smrti oca.

Petar je zauvijek ostao zahvalan član Katoličke crkve u Kanadi, koja mu je pružila jamstvo kako bi mogao izaći iz izbjegličkog logora opskrbivši ga kartom za ukrcaj na putnički brod SS Arkadia.

Njegovi prvi koraci na kanadskom tlu bili su teški, a počeli su iskrcajem u Montréalu, gdje je stigao 25. lipnja 1958. godine, te dalje nastavio vlakom za Hamilton, na put u nepoznato. Po dolasku u taj grad primio je 15 dolara da plati početni smještaj u svojoj novoj usvojenoj zemlji. Od ovog mukotrpnog početka, sa snažnom voljom, nadom i odlučnošću da sebi izgradi bolju budućnost, započeo je svoj useljenički život u Kanadi.

Boreći se s prijelazom u novi život u Kanadi bez znanja engleskog, isprva je radio u Hamiltonu i Strathroyu. On i njegov brat Slavko tada su se preselili u Winnipeg u nadi da će se zaposliti u svom zanatu zidara. Početkom 1959., tražeći stalni posao i bolju plaću, preselio se na daleki sjever u rudarski logor Keno Hill izvan male, udaljene zajednice Mayo, Yukon. Tamo je radio kao rudar za tvrtku United Keno Hill Mines gotovo dvije godine u njihovom rudniku Calumet. U prosincu 1960. odlazi iz Yukona u Winnipeg kako bi se pridružio bratu Slavku koji je počeo raditi u zidarskom zanatu. Nastavili su raditi na gradilištima diljem Manitobe i Saskatchewana. Tijekom svog vremena u Winnipegu, Petar je radio danju, dok je jedno vrijeme pohađao tečajeve engleskog u večernjoj školi.

Odmah po dolasku na kanadske obale pridružio se Hrvatsko-kanadskim organizacijama posvećenim očuvanju nade u slobodu i demokraciju stare domovine. Već za vrijeme boravka u Yukonu postao je redoviti pretplatnik kulturnih revija, novina i publikacija hrvatske dijaspore, uključujući tri desetljeća dugu pretplatu na hrvatski tjednik i godišnjak koji je izlazio u Chicagu.

Tijekom svog boravka u Winnipegu, Petar je s drugima radio na uspostavljanju hrvatske župe s nadbiskupijom, koja je osnovana tek nakon što se on preselio u Ontario. Bio je utemeljitelj hrvatske župe u Kitcheneru, član i podupiratelj mnogih mjesnih organizacija i društava hrvatske zajednica u Winnipegu i Kitcheneru. Na njega se uvijek moglo računati pri dobrovoljnom radu i materijalnoj potpori u svrhu pomoći za hrvatsku zajednicu. To je uključivalo besplatan rad na renoviranju Hrvatskoga doma u Breslauu (K-W Croatia Club) i donaciju za osnivanje Katedre za hrvatski jezik i kulturu na Sveučilištu Waterloo. Godine 1974. Petar se upisao u članstvo Hrvatskog narodnog vijeća pri njegovom osnivanju i to članstvo zadržao do raspuštanja organizacije nakon prvih višestranačkih izbora u Hrvatskoj. Tijekom godina donirao je u mnoge svrhe uključujući potporu hrvatskim disidentima, Crkvi u Hrvata za vrijeme komunizma, a posebno donacijama u humanitarne svrhe kako bi pomogao Hrvatskoj u njezinoj skrbi za siročad, prognanike i izbjeglice, ranjenike, te za projekte obnove poput one upućene mučeničkom gradu Vukovar, koji je jako stradao za vrijeme teškog puta Hrvatske prema neovisnosti početkom 1990-ih godina.

Nikada nije zaboravio niti prestao voljeti i brinuti za Hrvatsku, zemlju svog rođenja. Jedan od najsretnijih dana njegova života bio je svjedočenje rađanju slobodne i demokratske Hrvatske o kojoj su sanjale generacije njezinih sinova i kćeri, pa je tako vrlo brzo nakon osamostaljenja, godine 1995. Petar otputovao na svoje prvo od dva povratna putovanja u Hrvatsku. Napokon se mogao pomoliti na grobovima svojih roditelja i predaka, još jednom vidjeti rodno selo, posjetiti brata i sestru te preživjelu rodbinu i prijatelje iz djetinjstva i mladosti.

Petrov hrvatski identitet ostao je važan dio njegove duše. U jednoj od najnižih točaka života, kada je njegovo odbijanje da se pridruži komunističkoj partiji značilo da tamo nema vidljivu budućnost, te je žigosan kao kriminalac, jer je pobjegao iz države ne slažući se sa načelima iste, postavši izbjeglicom, zaglavljen u neizvjesnom limbu bez ikakvih primanja, samo s odjeću na leđima, s neizvjesnošću budućnosti, Kanada je bila ta koja je pružila tračak nade obećanjem u bolje sutra.

Brojni izazovi s kojima se Hrvatska suočavala kroz stoljeća i san o neovisnosti koji se prenosio s koljena na koljeno ostavili su na njemu dubok trag, no to ga nikako nije sprečavalo da voli svoju novu domovinu Kanadu, u kojoj je proživio svoj život i koja ga sada prima u svoja njedra. Duboko je volio, hvalio i zauvijek ostao zahvalan Kanadi na slobodi i mogućnostima koje su pružene njemu i njegovoj obitelji, kojoj je usadio duboku ljubav i poštovanje spram rodne im zemlje.

Uz svoj put probijanja u kanadskom društvu, Petar je gradio pomalo i svoj privatni život, pa se tako u siječnju 1964. godine oženio suprugom Anđelkom koja mu se pridružila u Kanadi dolaskom iz Tubingena (Njemačka) gdje je radila nakon što je godinu dana ranije napustila Hrvatsku. Tijekom sljedeće četiri godine postali su blagoslovljeni dolaskom svoje troje djece. Rođenje kćeri bio je trenutak u kojem je Petar pokazao mirnu glavu usred hladne zimske noći u Winnipegu kada ju je mirno porodio kod kuće, jer zbog prebrzih trudova nije bilo vremena voziti u bolnicu niti čekati dolazak hitne pomoći.Kako je život tekao, nosio im je i dalje razne promjene, pa su tako Petar i njegov brat Slavko sa svojim obiteljima doselili u Kitchener-Waterloo 1966. godine i osnovali svoju građevinsku tvrtku Braća Granići (Granic Brothers Construction). Tamo je Petar bio jako ponosan na svoj rad i nije pretjerano reći da je uživao radeći pošteno, zarađujući vlastitim trudom i rukama, ne prezajući ni pred jednim zadatkom, jer nije postojao niti jedan koji bi mu bio ispod časti. Čak i u teškim vremenima kada je gospodarstvo bilo u padu, ljeti je zapošljavao svoju djecu i nećake za vrijeme njihovih studentskih dana na puno radno vrijeme, plaćajući ih punim iznosima, te što je još važnije, usađujući im dobru radnu etiku. Uvijek je imao oko za primijetiti kada se netko od njih borio sa svojim radnim zadatcima i nikada ne bi oklijevao uskočiti i pomoći im da donesu te posljednje cigle ili žbuku do gornje skele.

Gradeći svoju tvrtku napornim radom tipično za useljenike, Petar i Slavko radili su na mnogim građevinskim projektima diljem regija Waterloo i Wellington, gdje su bili prvi na gradilištu, a posljednji na odlasku kući. Razvijajući solidan ugled, tvrtka Braća Granići upustila se u izgradnju velikih visokokvalitetnih kuća i nekoliko manjih stambenih zgrada, prvenstveno u Waterloou. Sposobnost Petra i Slavka da nastave raditi na projektima izgradnje kuća tijekom ekonomske krize bila je izvrstan primjer njihovoj djeci da se ne boje neuspjeha.

Petar je u Kanadi održavao čvrste rodbinske veze s bratom Slavkom i sestrom Ivom Raos, a svoje je nećake i nećakinje volio kao svoju djecu. Također, pomogao je sponzorirati nekoliko drugih članova obitelji da dođu u Kanadu i da se snađu u novoj zemlji. U sjećanju je zauvijek ostala zapisana njegova darežljivost i suosjećajnost kojom bi redovito natjerao svoju djecu, unuke i nećake da prihvate novčani dar, jer je smatrao da im kao studentima, mladim ljudima ili jednostavno zato što su se vozili dalekim putem, uvijek treba koji dolar više.

Prebirući po sjećanju, u razgovorima koje bi vodio, nije se smatrao svetcem, ali je pokušao ostati praktični vjernik. Njegov crkveni, misni život, sastojao se od raznih puteva, od sudjelovanja na slabo posjećenoj nedjeljnoj misi koju je posjetio putujući svećenik u rudarskom kampu u Yukonu, do toga da u svom domu u Winnipegu ugosti hrvatskog svećenika misionara iz Regine, Saskatchewan. Na odmoru u Sauble Beachu je predložio odlazak na mjesnu nedjeljnu misu, dok je ponekad drijemao u svojoj klupi u prvom redu u mjesnoj hrvatskoj župi. Nizao je članstva po župama gdje god bi se preselio, pa je tako bio i bivši član župe sv. Ante Daniela u Kitcheneru, član hrvatske župe Svete Obitelji u Kitcheneru (Bridgeport) i član župe Gospe Lurdske u Waterloou.

Za vrijeme pandemije počeo je pratiti TV misu, te je ostao predan svojoj vjeri. Uvijek je predvodio svoju obitelj u izgovaranju molitve prije jela, a članovi obitelji znali su da to lako može postati nešto više od brze molitve, a često i molitveni fest, posebno tijekom blagdana, zbog čega bi se njegova supruga Anđelka često žalila da se juha ohladila na račun preduge molitve. U tim molitvama sjetio bi se svih potrebitih, te bi vodio molitvu za njihovo zdravlje i dobrobit, za duše preminulih, tražio Božju pomoć za člana obitelji ili prijatelja, moleći pomoć za sve nas, kao i za Hrvatsku, a svaka bi nakana krenula nizom Očenaš, Zdravo Marija i Slava Ocu.

Petar je bio blagoslovljen dugim životom, a osobe koje je upoznavao na svom izbjegličkom putu u Austriji, Yukonu, Winnipegu i konačno u Kitchener-Waterloou, obogatili su mu život ostajući mu doživotni prijatelji čak i kad su se preselili diljem svijeta. Doživio je radost ženidbe svoje djece i dolaska unučadi. Ostao je stoički živeći i suočavajući se s mnogim poteškoćama tijekom godina, posebno ovih nekoliko posljednjih godina kada mu se zdravlje počelo pogoršavati. Nikada se nije žalio, čak niti najužoj obitelji, a uspone i padove s kojima se susreću sve obitelji, Petar i njegova životna družica Anđelka uvijek su rješavali na pravi način, crpeći uzajamno snagu partnera i ostajući postojani u međusobnoj podršci, posebice tijekom zdravstvenih izazova. Ostao je ponosan na svoje troje djece, zauvijek im dajući prednost i cijeneći uzvraćenu ljubav, koju je nesebično davao.

Njegova će prisutnost izuzetno nedostajati supruzi, djeci i cijeloj obitelji.

Neka počiva u vječnom miru.


FOTO: Private