Moral support

I originally wrote reams about the current situation in Ukraine but, quite honestly, it all sounded completely trite. Unbelievably appalling situation and watching the news has been heartbreaking but it's incredible just how strong and resolute the Ukrainian people have been so far. We are all behind them, I'm sure, even if there's nothing most of us can actually do to help.

I never met my grandparents, who were among what I believe were over two million Ukrainians captured by the Nazis during WWII and taken to forced labour camps in Germany, where my mother was born. My mother was only little when they died and a couple of years later she was adopted by an American couple and moved to the US. Despite my being born in the States, my childhood was seeped in Ukrainian culture, from the traditional costumes my mother would dress me in on special occasions and how she did my hair, to the food she cooked, and the language she spoke when she met another Ukrainian. I loved hearing her stories and I'm so very grateful right now that we were able to take our children there a few years ago and share this heritage with them.