FORK RIVER, Man. — Diane (Pidskalny) Hrychuk was just 18 and living alone, hours from her northwestern Manitoba farm, when she was told she was going to die.
Today, at age 63, that memory still fills her eyes with tears as she pauses before speaking again.
“I did a lot of negotiating with my God,” she said.
Hrychuk had already lost her left leg to bone cancer as a teenager and was embarking on a promising work life with the Sanatorium Board of Manitoba in Winnipeg when the erroneous news was delivered matter-of-factly in an elevator by the director of nursing.
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It was a setback for Hrychuk, who would later become a decorated athlete at two Paralympics, six Pan Am games and international competitions in more than 11 countries.
She remembered the words of an uncle, who told her after her cancer surgery at age 15 that this was her cross to bear and God wouldn’t have asked her to do it if He didn’t think she could.
“He picked me, who was I to let Him down,” said Hrychuk, who then vowed to give as much as possible every day of her life.
It started with an invitation to participate in wheelchair sports that would span four decades.
That led to table tennis, track and field, volleyball and eventually the national women’s wheelchair basketball team.
She met her husband, Alex, at a dance, married in 1984 and settled into anything but a quiet life on the farm at Fork River, near her home community of Ethelbert. There, she continued to train on her farm driveway.
A shoulder injury while training for the Paralympic Games slated for Spain forced her retirement from elite athletics. She looks back fondly on that experience.
“If I hadn’t lost my leg, I wouldn’t have met so many people,” she said, citing her association with Terry Fox and Rick Hansen.
Hrychuk recently was asked to try out a new prosthetic leg that bends. It would lessen the marked limp that characterizes her gait, but she found the $50,000 price tag out of reach and the effort to break in a new leg daunting.
“Even if it was free, I don’t know if I want to go through it. It’s just too hard.”
Today, she coaches a disabled athlete and continues to volunteer exten-sively. The volunteering stemmed from the amount of help she received from others in her life.
“It’s normal if you’re a part of something, you want to give back,” she said.
In addition to a long affiliation with wheelchair sports boards, she also joined the Fork River Women’s Institute, doing fundraisers, supporting local breakfast programs in schools and preparing lunches at funerals.
She is trained in pastoral care and has visited patients in long-term care facilities. She has also called bingos, led 4-H groups and participated in Big Sisters.
Hrychuk served as a school trustee for 13 years, a court magistrate and a district correspondent for the Dauphin newspaper. She also learned to swim.
Her son, A.J., described his mother’s grit in a paper he wrote for a university class.
“It’s amazing that someone with such a cross to bear has managed to overcome so much and at the same time give back to the world,” he wrote.
“I challenge you to do what Diane Hrychuk did with the lemons life gave her.”
Today, the farm is rented out and A.J. is doing a teaching internship at a local school.
Hrychuk now has more time for friends and family, in addition to fishing, hunting, pilates and gardening.
Tim Frick of Pender Island, B.C., who coached Hrychuk on the national women’s basketball team in the 1990s, called her one of the pioneers in the sport at a time when wheelchair athletes were transitioning from participating in numerous sports into specializing in one.
“She was powerful, physically and in terms of character,” he said of Hrychuk.
The strong shooter was a starter who played centre and was regularly called upon to make three point shots, but Frick said today she would likely be a power forward.
Hrychuk was a leader on and off the court, rallied the team and taught Frick the importance of team chemistry and cohesion.
“She was spectacular at building team spirit,” he said. “She was a great ally in that regard.”
Her dedication and commitment to the program never wavered, even with a family and farm.
“She was one of our role models in managing family,” Frick said.
“When you’re a coach, you’re not always looking for a talented phenom, you’re looking for people with character and heart. She was one of them.”
