How poignant. There are those who stayed and those who heard the call and made their way home. I'm a couple of generations down from a Ващук who made the decision to leave (in 1948, to avoid "repatriation" into an enemy state). While my teenaged father made his way to the US with his aunt, who adopted him along the way, my widowed grandfather (a priest) stayed behind, with his middle child, a daughter, my aunt Liuba, who had no choice in the matter. Today my father's grandchildren are Canadians, still Ukrainian enough to feel the reverberations of intergenerational trauma but safely rooted here, and her grandson is a uniformed defender.
I've met my Ukrainian first cousin (his father) only a few times; we like each other very much but are only in sporadic "contact" by social media through intermediaries. I don't know his son Андрій but know that he has managed to stay safe, perhaps because, as someone without any military experience, it made sense to deploy him in other than a combat role: as the full-scale invasion dragged on (due to inadequate military support from the West), he enlisted as a volunteer, likely because he felt an obligation to put his own life on the line. Elsewhere I have heard you speak about your guilt but you did not elaborate. I know it takes many forms and varies in degree but I think that's a pervasive feeling amongst conscious Ukrainians of conscience that will stay with all of us who survive regardless of the outcome (and the possibilities are terrifying to contemplate because they are all horrific). Have we done all we could to help Ukraine and save Ukrainians and was it enough?
I have somehow missed your comment, Lesia. Thank you for sharing your story. Regarding your last question, I think it's not yet the right time to draw conclusions. The war is not over and we should continue doing what we can.
How poignant. There are those who stayed and those who heard the call and made their way home. I'm a couple of generations down from a Ващук who made the decision to leave (in 1948, to avoid "repatriation" into an enemy state). While my teenaged father made his way to the US with his aunt, who adopted him along the way, my widowed grandfather (a priest) stayed behind, with his middle child, a daughter, my aunt Liuba, who had no choice in the matter. Today my father's grandchildren are Canadians, still Ukrainian enough to feel the reverberations of intergenerational trauma but safely rooted here, and her grandson is a uniformed defender.
I've met my Ukrainian first cousin (his father) only a few times; we like each other very much but are only in sporadic "contact" by social media through intermediaries. I don't know his son Андрій but know that he has managed to stay safe, perhaps because, as someone without any military experience, it made sense to deploy him in other than a combat role: as the full-scale invasion dragged on (due to inadequate military support from the West), he enlisted as a volunteer, likely because he felt an obligation to put his own life on the line. Elsewhere I have heard you speak about your guilt but you did not elaborate. I know it takes many forms and varies in degree but I think that's a pervasive feeling amongst conscious Ukrainians of conscience that will stay with all of us who survive regardless of the outcome (and the possibilities are terrifying to contemplate because they are all horrific). Have we done all we could to help Ukraine and save Ukrainians and was it enough?
I have somehow missed your comment, Lesia. Thank you for sharing your story. Regarding your last question, I think it's not yet the right time to draw conclusions. The war is not over and we should continue doing what we can.