I am not a wizzard, i am still learning....

Grandma Vera lives alone in a small town, located in the Western part of Ukraine. Granddad died a few years ago so she only has 3 dogs, a cat and a dozen of hens in her household. It is sad that she is left all alone up there, my dad asked her if she wants to live in Moldova but she is old now and would find the change of house (and country in some way) very hard. Her other child, my dad’s brother, lives in a far far north, in Siberia, where it snows 9 months out of 12. But we all try to visit her as much as we can (and it looks like she is moving in with us soon anyways).

(Here is my grandma. She prepares grapes to make wine and juice from them).

When my granddad was alive, they used to have a cow, a few pigs and more then a hectare of land where they used to grow potatoes, wheat and etc. They were almost self-sufficient in terms of food. My grandma knows how to look after land and even now on a small piece of land around her house she manages to grow all sorts of plants (strawberries, cabbage, tomatoes, cucumbers and etc). Everytime when we visit her, she feeds us with all this yammy organic food. She even makes her own apple and grape juice and homemade wine, jams and so on. I would love to be at least a little like her one day and grow my own things on a piece of land. Grandma Vera is very organised and relatives say we are alike in that.

She had a very difficult childhood. She was young during the war times and had to work on the field with her mother. The war didn’t end in 1945 for that part of Ukraine as fights continued with USSR for the independence of Ukraine. Grandma told us that even though they weren’t hungry in a before/post wa period, she saw lots of people being killed. As many people of her age, she only finished 4 grades in school. But she is a very positive and lively person, that what I like her for! My granddad Nikolay was a very hard-working man and grandma always bossed him around even though he was 12 years older.

(Here is my dad and grandma in the kitchen).

Interestingly, her dad Adam immigrated to the US at the beginning of 20th century. He earned lots of money and came back to Ukraine, where he bought lots of landInterestingly, came back to Ukraine, where he bought lots of land. His land and other possessions were taken away when communism started, so he went a bit mad. It was interesting to me to find out that i am not the only travellor in the family.