Local man glad his dad switched from the Titanic to the Lusitania

By Ken Johnston
Editor

While so much of the world was reflecting on the 100th anniversary of the Titanic sinking and the 1,514 lives that were lost, one man in Rainy River was thinking how lucky his family was.
Joe Kaliska, 80, of Rainy River, said that his dad, John Kaliska, decided in 1912 that he was going to travel to America to try and make a better life for his family. Leaving Bardiov, Czechoslovakia he travelled by train to Cherbourg, France. When he arrived there he had booked passage on the Titanic, to travel to New York City and then onto Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.
“Dad was like me. He was the type of guy that when he wanted to go he wanted to go like yesterday!” said Joe. So after asking questions he discovered that the Lusitania was leaving for New York seven hours earlier than the Titanic. He quickly changed plans, not knowing how lucky that anxious trait he had, was.
Joe said that when he and his siblings were growing up on the family homestead in Pinewood, they had no radio or television. So often mom and dad would tell the kids stories and sometimes it was about the Titanic and dad’s journey on the Lusitania.
“Dad said they were still 300 miles (on Lusitania) from New York when the distress call from Titanic came through. But they were too far from Titanic to help them. Instead the Carpathia was dispatched as they were closer,” said Joe.
As a kid Joe said he did not quite grasp the entire enormity of the tragedy and how dad had just narrowly averted it. But as he grew older he realized how the entire world was fixated on Titanic then and even today.
John Kaliska made his way to Pittsburg where he worked in the steel mills making enough money to send for his wife and infant daughter, Mary. However, Mary ended up living only a short while in North America. She passed away from Dysentery. Had John been on the Titanic, it would likely have been the end of the family line as almost all the men stayed on board and went down with the ship. There were not enough life boats for all the passengers.
John and Susan (Joe’s mom) settled in Pittsburg and had three more children, Gizella, Margaret and Julianna from 1914-1919. Then missing the old country, they went back to Bardiov where two more kids were born, Andy and Lad.
Eventually John decided to return to North America. This time to Canada to work and settle again. This time he ended up in Crescent Mine, Saskatchewan, which is where Joe, and his sisters Ella and Irene were born. For a time he worked in coal mines there. But his health forced a change. The doctor told him to get healthy he needed to work in the open air. Hence, they purchased 160 acres in Sutherland Township (just north of Pinewood) and settled.
The family laid down deep roots here. Joe and his wife Lu raised their family here, with Joe playing an important role in regional government. He eventually retired as a government Northern Affairs Officer in Rainy River. Both his brothers Andy and Lad also retired in Rainy River, later passing away. His sister Ella Bernie still lives in Rainy River and raised her family here. His sister Julianna Paldio also settled in the area, but was tragically killed in a car accident in 1989.
Joe became very emotional last week when the Titanic’s 100th anniversary of its sinking was noted by the world. “I tear up thinking what could have been and am very thankful for dad’s anxiousness.”