Devina Zalesky
A Survivor’s
Drive to
Reach the Top
by Robin Roberts
Devina Zalesky first discovered she was a survivor at just
seven years old. Life had been happy and carefree in her
small village of Nausori, Fiji, where her father ran the family
rice plantation. Then one day a cyclone ripped through
the town. Flood waters rose to the door of the family’s modest home,
built on stilts four feet above the ground. Curious to see the wrath of
the storm, Devina, a name that means divine, leaned out the door —
and was swept straight into the deep water. All that was visible was
her waist-length hair, floating on the surface of the water. In a bit of “divine” intervention, her father reached in, grabbed a fist-full of that
hair and pulled her to safety, gasping and sputtering. His daughter
survived, his farm did not.
With no insurance and no money to rebuild,
the family was devastated, wiped out. At one
point, her father sold his only suit to buy food.
A year later, with still no prospects for income,
the family appealed to relatives in Canada to
help them immigrate. In 1972, Devina, her
parents and two brothers landed in Vancouver
with their meagre belongings and hope for a
new life. They lived with her mother’s brother
for a year, then moved to a basement suite. Two
years later, her parents bought their first home,
in East Vancouver. It was a new beginning,
but that new beginning was also a tremendous
upheaval, and it took its toll on Devina’s
parents. “We arrived in June, but with our
first winter came the unrelenting rain, and it
was very depressing for all of us,” remembers
Devina, now 46. Her parents soon separated.
Left to raise three kids alone, Devina’s mother
worked two jobs. During the day, she labouredat a plastics manufacturing firm. At night,
she cleaned office buildings. Devina, at
just 12, would often accompany her mom
and help her clean the buildings at night.
At 13, she had her own job, working at
a malt shop. By 16, she was waitressing.
Proving herself a reliable worker, despite
her young age, Devina was entrusted
with opening the restaurant for the day’s
business. Weekday mornings at 6 o’clock,
she would rise, make her younger brothers’
breakfast and lunch, leave for the
restaurant, where she would work until 8,
go off to school, work a few more hours
afterward, go home to help her mother
with supper and other household chores,
then fit in time for homework before
falling into bed. It was a survivor’s mentality
instilled out of necessity, to once
again keep her head above water, if only
figuratively this time. She knew that if
she wanted that better life her family had
travelled half-way around the world to
find, it required hard work. “I guess I was
determined I was not going to continue
to live the life that I had lived,” Devina
says simply.
It wasn’t an easy integration, however.
Devina and her brothers spoke very little
English when they arrived in Vancouver. “Basically, I was dropped into school here
in Grade 4 and learned English as I went
along,” she says. “It really was sink or
swim.” Then there was the bullying and
teasing in the schoolyard. “I didn’t know
what it meant when we were called Pakis
or Punjabs,” she says, “or told to go back
where we came from. It took a while to
learn that this was being said in a mean,
racist manner.”
Devina says she coped because she
was just so happy and thankful to be in
Canada, and constantly praised then-
Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau for passing
the legislation that made their immigration
possible.
Today, Devina’s mother works at a
pharmaceutical distributing firm, her
younger brother Ro co-owns a beauty
supply business. Devina is president of
AllWest Insurance Services Ltd., where
her younger brother works with her as
an insurance broker. Devina’s dad lives
with his new family in Alberta, and visits
Devina often. “The first time he came
to my home, his eyes welled up,” she
remembers. “He couldn’t believe where
I’d ended up.”
I am in awe of her,” says Devina’s husband,
Paul Zalesky, as he looks fondly
at his wife. The two are seated in their
sumptuous West Vancouver home, overlooking
the ocean, a long, long way from
Fiji and the struggles of her younger life. “You see that with first-generation immigrants,
the desire to just work and have
something so much better. There’s such
a tremendous appreciation for what we
[who were born in Canada] have; new
Canadians perceive it as a gift.” But that
gift came at a price, as Devina’s struggles
were far from over.
At first, it seemed as though her
hard work would reward her with the
charmed life she so craved. Displaying
an aptitude for business during her final
year at Britannia Secondary School, her
teacher, John Adams, suggested she work
for his father, Frank Adams, who owned
an insurance company. But she had her
sights set higher: she wanted to be a flight
attendant, to see more of the world.
She even took night courses at BCIT
in anticipation of her new high-flying
career. Problem was, when PWA, the
now-defunct airline she’d applied to, prepared
to bond her, they discovered she
was only 18 — far too young to work
as a flight attendant. So, she followed
her teacher’s advice, and went to work at
Adams Insurance Group.
“You noticed her when she walked
into a room,” recalls her former teacher,
John Adams. “She had a really bubbly,
cheerleader, outgoing-type personality;
she just looked like she had a lot on the
ball. She stuck out in my mind as a real
people person, and I thought she would
do really well in anything dealing with
people. So I suggested she go see my dad,
and maybe join the family business.”
Adams, who, along with his brothers,
run the company now that their father
has retired, says the young whip didn’t
disappoint. Although, as an autoplan
agent, the first order of business for the
new hire was to learn to drive. “We had
a fleet of stick shifts, and she didn’t know
how to drive a standard, so I had to show
her how,” says Adams, chuckling at the
memory. Fortunately, “her work ethic
is just outstanding,” he says, and she
quickly caught on to the stick shift, and
the business. So much so that, within a
year, she had moved on. “We were disappointed
when she left, but at the same
time, we gave her our best. There’s lots
of business out there for everybody. And
she’s done a fantastic job [with AllWest
Insurance]. Last time I saw her, I told her
I was really proud of her, of what she’d
accomplished.”
Her ambition on overdrive, she was
anxious to climb the corporate ladder.
But Frank Adams had four sons, and Devina could see her odds of climbing
too high would be blocked by a succession
of heirs. So, in 1983, she approached
Bill Verlaan at Coyle Insurance Agency,
one of the largest autoplan agencies in
British Columbia. “She came to see me to ask if she could represent our agency,”
recalls Verlaan, who bought out Coyle in
1982, and changed the name to AllWest
Insurance in 1984. “She looked to potentially
be a very good worker, and she
turned out to be the best worker I had.
What set her apart was her attitude, her
efficiency, her drive, her pleasant personality,
her good looks — everything. She
was exceptional to all the other employees.
She had a drive that nobody had. I
used her as an example with the other
staff on the road, and they were jealous of
her. She was making five times the money
they were making. She was at it from
morning to night, seven days a week. And
she always went after the best of vehicles — the Mercedes, the Jaguars, the BMWs.
She knew where the money was. She had
ways about her of getting dealerships that
nobody else could get.”
Devina had joined the company without
a car of her own, so Verlaan bought
her a brand-new Toyota. Less than two
years later, with a solid portfolio of “the
best of vehicles,” she went to her boss
with a proposition. “She was dealing
with the Mercedes Benzes, the BMWs,
the Jaguars,” says Verlaan, now retired
and living in Kelowna. “Her little Toyota
wasn’t quite up to par. So she asked for a
monthly car allowance so she could buy
herself a Mercedes — very smart on her
part. So from then on in, she started driving
Mercedes. That’s the type of girl she
was; she always looked ahead.”
Looking ahead to March 1986, she
laid eyes on the suave and charming
Paul Zalesky when she went to prepare
a client’s insurance at luxury auto dealer
MCL Motorcars, where Paul worked at
the time. It was love at first sight. “We
really liked each other’s style — hardworking,
kind, honest and driven for
success,” remembers Devina. One year
later, they were engaged; six months after
that, they were married in Maui on New
Year’s Eve. A year after that, Paul joined
his wife at AllWest. For the next few
years, the dynamic duo lived an exciting, yet hard-driven, life. Devina worked 14
hours a day, six days a week to achieve
the very high bar she’d set for herself.
Then, two tragedies, in the form of miscarriages,
stopped them in their tracks.
They began to re-evaluate their lives
and where they were going. At the same
time, their company went up for sale.
On Valentine’s Day, 1992, they bought
AllWest. Including themselves, the staff
numbered 18. Today, AllWest is the largest
independent autoplan agency in the
province, encompassing two divisions,
one in Vancouver, the other in North
Vancouver, with a staff of over 200. Paul
is CEO, Devina is president.
In the midst of acquiring their company,
Devina finally had a successful
pregnancy with their first son, Stefan.
Being a new mom, however, didn’t slow
her down. She divided her time and
focus between her growing family, which
included another son, Mikhail, four years
later, and her burgeoning business.
“Of the 972 agencies in B.C., our
Vancouver office is the largest, and our
North Vancouver office is the second
largest,” says Paul proudly. “And you
can attribute that all to Devina and her
focus. She’s always going the extra mile
for someone. I remember a woman called
at quarter to 10 one night, upset, saying
her insurance had expired and she didn’t
know what to do. Devina drove over
and gave her a decal and the paperwork.
Another time, a woman called to say her
house was on fire. She had four Japanese
exchange students living in her basement,
and somehow the power cords for their
computers got tangled up and started
the fire. Devina and I, as well as our two
sons, jumped in the car and went to her.
We got her and her students set up in a
hotel, calmed them, and reassured them
an adjuster would be over in the morning.
People are always so astonished and
impressed that Devina would make the
effort to do that. If you’ve got the ability
to help, then you do it. You can’t turn a
blind eye in an emotional moment. And
that’s been our company motto: always go
the extra mile, always care, whether it be
for a corporation, an individual, or a family.
Whatever Devina can do to help, she’s
done. Even when the staff have a personal
problem, they’ll call her before they’ll call
their parents.”
Paul and Devina’s assistant, and the
company’s manager of corporate relations,
Dana Voynovich, concurs. “Devina’s a
very generous individual. When she started,
she didn’t have much, and she draws
her strength from that. When she sees
people struggling, she’s willing to extend a
helping hand. I consider them my friends
as well as my employers. They treat me
well and I treat them well; we have a
good relationship. We’ve been for dinner,
we’ve vacationed together. But when I’m
here, I’m here to work, I have a job to do, and they recognize that. When we’re not
working, we can have a great time, kick
off the heels kind of thing.”
Voynovich says she’s tried to get her
boss to take the occasional time out, with
varying success. “Devina integrates herself
fully into the company, and that’s because
it’s something she’s worked very hard at.
You can’t just completely relinquish the
reins and sit back and feel relaxed. That’s
part of who she is. If it’s stressful, though,
I’ll tell her to shut the Berry off. Yeah,
that’ll last for about two seconds. Then
her little fingers will inch over and she’ll
push it back on!”
As picture-perfect as the Zaleskys’ lives
were, however, they were not immune
to more misfortune. In 2004, Devina
survived her second brush with death.
While vacationing in Italy, she was sitting
on the window sill of her hotel. The
windows were wide open, as the couple
tried to catch a breeze in the 34-degree
evening heat. She lost her balance, fell
and impaled herself on a small potted
palm tree below. She was emergency airlifted
to a hospital in Zurich, Switzerland,
suffering from internal bleeding, a concussion,
severed carotid artery, fractured
clavicle, ribs and coccyx, and lacerated
liver. She underwent surgery, spent a
week in intensive care, then another week
in a recovery ward. The bill: $285,000
US. “A testament to good travel insurance,”
says Paul, wryly.
To Devina, it was a life-altering experience.
“I nearly died,” she says. “I realized
in an instant how truly precious life is.
I was afraid I would never see my sons
again. I now value each day, and try to
live it to its fullest.”
Then, in November 2007, yet another
blow. While working out at the gym,
Devina found she didn’t have her usual
energy. She hadn’t been feeling quite
right, and was grappling with a persistent
cough. She went to her doctor, who sent
her for tests, including a mammogram.
“They found a lump,” she says solemnly.
She had routinely done her own breast
exams, as had her doctor. Neither discovered
the lump. She remembers very
clearly the day she was given the news.
“It was January 17, 2008. I was driving
home from the doctor’s office, crying, not
thinking clearly. I was in shock. I must
have been driving erratically, as I was
reaching for tissues, trying to see through
my tears. A police officer pulled me over.
When he saw me, he asked what was
wrong. I told him, and he hugged me. He
even offered to drive me home.”
As devastated as she was, Devina says one of her first thoughts was that she
would beat it. “I told myself I would get
through this no matter what,” she recalls.
“I would see my sons graduate and get
married.”
She underwent her first surgery, a
lumpectomy, two months later, followed
by radiation therapy. Then she had a
second surgery to remove some lymph
nodes, to be on the safe side. This
was followed by a course of anti-cancer
drugs called Tamoxifen, which triggered
a severe allergy. Those were traded for
a different drug, via injections, once a
month, directly into her ovaries. The
pain was excruciating, and her reaction
adverse, once again. “Now I’m just going
to get my ovaries removed,” she says, with
resignation. Removing the ovaries stops
production of estrogen, which reduces
the risk for a potential recurrence of the
cancer. That procedure is scheduled for
June, and her prognosis looks good. She’s
survived again.
Reflecting on a very challenging year,
Devina says if there’s one thing she
knows now that she wishes she’d known
then, it’s the importance of a mammogram.
“There was no history of cancer in
my family, on either side,” she says. “You
hear about it, but you never think it’s
going to happen to you. I wish I’d gotten
a mammogram earlier. I tell everyone
over 40 to get one.”
Always a close couple, the diagnosis
has brought Paul and Devina even closer.
“When I gave him the news, he told me
to be strong, that he loved me more than
anything. He is my rock,” she says of her
husband, who stayed up late most nights,
researching all he could about breast
cancer, and her treatment options. Last
year, he participated in the BC Cancer
Foundation’s two-day, 60-km Weekend
to End Breast Cancer in his wife’s honour,
raising over $50,000. It was the largest
individual donation that year.
Today, Devina’s cut back on work,
but just marginally — from 70-80 hours
a week, to 65-70 hours a week. The joy
she still derives from her business keeps
her distracted, she says. “You don’t want
to think about it,” she says of the cancer. “The more active you are, the better you
are. Certain days you’re down because
of all the medication, what your body’s
going through.”
Dana Voynovich says, while many
people take the “less you know, less you’re
scared” approach to such a diagnosis,
Devina has been the opposite. “She armed
herself with a lot of information. She
took the bull by the horns, which is the
way she is anyway, so it doesn’t surprise
me. There are times, I’m sure, when she
was at home and felt very alone and
very sad. But you didn’t see a lot of that
when she was at the office or anywhere
else. She just kept very busy, which was
not difficult for her.” Voynovich admits
her jaw dropped when her boss told her
the news. “I was shocked. I had a panic
attack and everything went woozy. It
hit too close to home. It starts to make
you think, all the things you used to be
worried about, the colour of your car, the
drapes in the living room. None of it is
important; it doesn’t matter.”
While Devina and Paul have travelled
extensively — their home is filled with
huge paintings, sculptures and statues
of Asian and Indonesian art, as well as
a massive, century-old royal kimono
under glass, brought back from their
trips — there are still many destinations
on their must-see list. One of those is
India, the homeland of Devina’s grandparents
before they sailed to Fiji to work
the sugar canes. Although they both
died when she was very young, Devina
would like to some day make a pilgrimage
to see their roots, around Madras,
and to ensure her sons know their heritage.
They already have a head start:
Offspring of two ethnicities — Paul’s
Russian/Ukrainian — Stefan, now 19,
and Mikhail, 15, consider themselves
first and foremost brown. They even
attend Diwali, and understand a bit of
Hindi, since Devina and her mother have
spoken to them in the language from the
time they were babies.
For now, however, the Zaleskys’
excursions will be a little closer to home.
Devina recently added a long-coveted
pet project to her list of distractions. “I’ve always wanted to buy a place in
Palm Springs,” she says, “and when I was
diagnosed, we went down in March and
bought a place. We gutted it, redesigned
it, did the whole interior decorating. I
love spending a lot of time there in the
desert. It uplifts my spirits each and every
morning when I wake up.”
Today, however, Devina gazes out at
a spring storm gathering over the grey
Pacific. Somewhere on the other side of
that rolling ocean, thousands of miles
and a lifetime away, is Fiji. Where she
first learned to survive.
View full story in eMehfil.