“Special Relations” with Ukrainiac

Yesterday we had the privilege of hearing an inspired talk by Ukrainiac telling about her grandparents in Ohio who took care of three British children ages 5, 10 and 12 during WWII.  These childrens’ adventure started when they crossed the Nazi infested waters of the Atlantic Ocean and became acquainted with their new, American foster parents (Ukrainiac’s grandparents) in 1940.  The children were reunited with their biological parents in England at wars end.  The letters that were exchanged by both sets of parents and the three children were preserved in the British parents’ attic and compiled into a book in 1990 by the youngest daughter of the family, Jocelyn Statler.  The book is titled Special Relations: Transatlantic letters linking three English evacuees and their families, 1940-45.     

Ukrainiac emphasized the power of the written word by showing us this book that had actual handwritten letters in children’s scrawl and photos of the key actors and how they revealed what life was like during the war over 60 years ago.  The war ravaged England and reading Ukrainiac’s book ravaged my heart.  I’ve been thinking, what would it have been like for Ukrainians to send their children away from their native country hoping that their children would find LIFE in another strange land that was considered safe?  What letters are left to show a Ukrainian mother’s desperation of finding out how her child was faring away from her maternal love?  What father in Ukraine was writing home to his loved ones with a protective paternal love while he was fighting on the Front for the Soviet’s Great Patriotic War? Are there any letters left to pore over to find such facts?

 

One of the students told of her grandmother not releasing any precious, fragile letters that her grandfather had written during the war.  If only this student could get to them and reveal in English what were the commonplace things going on during her grandparents’ time.  Another question put to Ukrainiac was how does one know something written is worthy of being read later and when should it be written?  The answer Ukrainiac gave to those who came to hear her explain “Why We Write!” is that whatever words that are written now WILL be valued by generations to come. 

The reason we will have another “History Matters” event on April 17th is to capture the stories of grandparents or older members of Ukrainian society and to document what every day events they underwent.  (I might add, there was nothing ordinary about the tragedies that Ukraine went through, all the more reason to get the stories while those living testimonies are still alive to ask!)

I John 1: 12-14