Helen Dobusz

Helen “Halyna” Dobusz was born on March 29, 1928 in the village of Lypova Dolyna, and grew up in Hadiach, in the Poltava Region of Ukraine. Her parents were Makar and Maria (Lysivnenko) Sydorenko. She was the third of four daughters: the eldest, Nadia died in early 1930s during the Great “Holodomor” Famine in Ukraine; the next eldest sister, Natalie Kozar, predeceased her in 2003; and the youngest sister, Luba Adams, lives in Lords Valley, PA. The family fled their home in 1943 under the oppression of Soviet Communist rule and for the next years during World War II, they were refugees in Austria and Germany. Halyna met her future husband, Gregory Hryhorij Dobusz in a refugee camp in Stephanskirchen, Germany, where they married on February 20, 1949 and immigrated to the United States on July 14, 1949. The young couple started life in the US on the eastern shore of Maryland, lived briefly in Newark, NJ, raised their family in Green Brook, NJ, and lastly settled in a home they built in Bridgewater, NJ. Halyna was an accomplished artist who specialized in intricate Ukrainian embroidery, making Ukrainian “korovaiy” wedding cakes, and participated in numerous craft fairs throughout the state. She was awarded the distinction of NJ Master of Ukrainian Embroidery through the NJ State Council on the Arts Folk Arts Apprenticeship Program. She is survived by her husband Gregory Hryhorij Dobusz, daughter Olia Lupan and her husband Walter, grandchildren Andrew and Nina Lupan, sister Luba Adams, as well as numerous nephews, nieces and cousins in the United States and Ukraine. Her son, Taras, predeceased her on August 8, 2017. Relatives and friends are invited to the visitation at the Hagan-Chamberlain Funeral Home, 225 Mountain Ave., Bound Brook, NJ on Friday, December 8, from 4-7pm, with Panachyda service at 6:30. Funeral services will be Saturday, December 9 at 10am, at St. Andrew Memorial Ukrainian Orthodox Church, 280 Main Street, South Bound Brook, NJ, followed by interment at St. Andrew Cemetery on the church grounds. In lieu of flowers, charitable donations may be made in Halyna’s name to the United Ukrainian American Relief Committee, Inc., 1206 Cottman Ave., Philadelphia, PA, 19111 www.uuarc.org