LARA ALEXANDRIA KLYMASZ

Lara Klymasz passed away peacefully from ALS on July 21, 2026. 

She was predeceased by her father Robert Klymasz in 2024 and her mother Shirley Klymasz in 2011. She will be sadly missed by her sister Andrea, her brother-in law Bradley Swartz and her favorite nephew Aaron Klymasz-Swartz. She will also be missed by her cousins, aunts, uncles and many friends.

Lara was born on March 3, 1968, in Ottawa, ON. She grew up in Ottawa in Blackburn Hamlet. The family started moving in 1977 and Lara attended Balmoral Hall for grades 3 and 4. This was followed by a year in St John’s Nfld, and then a year in Los Angeles before moving back to Winnipeg. Years later, her family moved back to Ottawa where she graduated from Immaculata High School in 1986.

Lara played violin and was an avid writer of short stories and poetry. She published poems including one on the front of the University of Ottawa student newspaper the Fulcrum where she graduated with a degree in English in 1995. While in Ottawa, Lara joined the Causeway Clubhouse (now called Causeway Work Centre) when Don Palmer was the executive director.  The Clubhouse empowers people facing barriers to find meaningful employment.  Lara met many friends there and received the training and assistance needed for her to get her first jobs.

The family moved back to Winnipeg in 2000. Lara contributed to the Lake Winnipeg Writers Group “Voices” journal, and her work also appears in Ukrainian Canadian community publications and literature, such as the Nasha Doroha. She actively supported local cultural initiatives in Winnipeg by volunteering at Oseredok, at the Betel Place, Holy Family Nursing Home and Riverview Health Centre. Lara was a member of the Holy Family Ukrainian Catholic church and had sung in their choir. She had a beautiful voice.

Lara spent years looking after her mother when she had dementia just as her mother had done in Ottawa when Lara was dealing with her own mental illness, schizophrenia. Lara was happy to be in Winnipeg and spent many summers in Gimli at the family cottage walking with her mom and their dog.

Through the years, Lara worked at the University of Manitoba, Quarks shoe store at Grant Park mall, the Winnipeg Clinic as well as at various clerical jobs throughout Winnipeg.

Lara’s ALS symptoms started with her speech and ability to chew and swallow food. With her diagnosis of Bulbar ALS in April 2025 she lived in her apartment for almost a year with homecare and other support. As her illness progressed, she required hospital care. We thank all the doctors, nurses, unit assistants and other staff that have been so nice to Lara both at HSC and Deer Lodge. We also thank the 3 psychiatrists who treated Lara through her schizophrenia: Dr. Levine in Ottawa and Drs. Eleff and Chakkalackal in Winnipeg. Lara received compassion and kindness with their tireless dedication to patient care.

Lara dealt with 2 major illnesses in her short life, and it is still astounding the amount of stigma involved with a mental illness versus a physical one. Testing, treatment and sympathy abound for ALS but not for schizophrenia. Slowly, people are realizing that mental and physical illnesses are fundamentally linked.

Lara would want you to live in the moment and see the good in people - value every day. Here is her poem from the Fulcrum student paper Minorities Supplement 1987:

Realize

There it is,

you crash and burn

Sometimes when you

Give all your emotions away

(and it was such a lovely day)

But self-pity clouded

Me through and through.

Yet it never ceases that

At such a time

I see a human being

Without a limb,

A torso in a wheelchair

And I will always

Look into their eyes of strength

And I am no longer in despair.

They open up the world to me,

I see the sun

The sparkling snow

And I feel an inner glow that outshines

The dark, musty, decay.

The heaviness of day to day.

A graveside burial service will be held at 1:30 p.m. on Friday, July 31 at All Saints Cemetery 4515 Main Street, West Saint Paul. A celebration of Lara’s life will be later in the Fall. 

In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to the ALS Society of Manitoba  or Peer Connections Manitoba formerly the Manitoba Schizophrenia Society, Inc.  or to a charity of your choice.

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ETHICAL DEATH CARE

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