A series of essays….
MY BEAUTIFUL UKRAINIAN FAMILY ~
I AM SEATED ON GRANDMA’S LAP AND RONNIE IS TO MY RIGHT.
MY MOTHER IS IN SECOND ROW FROM TOP, SECOND FROM THE RIGHT.
….as seen through my eyes!
By: Jacqueline E Hughes
To be grounded is to possess a firm and unwavering foundation, an internal strength and self-confidence that sustains you through ups and downs and from which deep and enduring success can be found. It’s simple to describe someone who is grounded as one who is sensible and down-to-earth or, plainly, having one’s feet on the ground.
Are we born grounded? Or, would our place of birth encourage us to become grounded through the sense of ancestry, community, responsibility, and location? We may ask ourselves what is it that sustains us—strengthens and supports us both physically and mentally—and then come up with examples that have helped to keep us grounded and true to ourselves and those around us.
The meaning of being grounded, for me, holds such diversity from generation to generation considering I’d spent many of my early years in the home of my Ukrainian grandparents in Mishawaka, Indiana. My grandparents were raising their five youngest (adult) children who still lived at home as they were pursuing their higher education, work endeavors, and even just graduating from high school. The six older siblings had already left the nest to find jobs and raise families of their own.
It was a whirlwind arrangement that tossed my older brother and me between the Ukrainian language spoken by my grandparents and English, the preferred language of my aunts and uncles, as the younger generation planted their feet firmly onto the New Land and the modern ideas they embraced. Sadly, distancing themselves from their parents and the Old World (Ukraine) that represented their heritage was their desire and main goal as they spread their wings and learned how to fly in America.
My brother and I could see and feel the distance growing between parents and children. With grandma working constantly to maintain the house and ‘feed the troops,’ and grandpa spending his time raising a vegetable garden in the back yard, their younger children pursued personal happiness and did very little to assist their parents.
Ronnie and I were grandpa’s faithful students and learned how to grow and maintain the veggie patch. Grandma would spend days canning what she could to supplement the family meals during the winter. The five children at home wanted to flaunt their youth and ties to freedom during the early 1950’s, after WW2 had ended, and frequently showed their distain towards the two people who helped to make their lives comfortable. They were, indeed, their own generation.
Our parents both worked throughout the summer months and depended on my mother’s parents to watch over us during the week. Grandma would have a huge meal prepared as everyone slipped into the backdoor around five-thirty in the evening. Soon, after dinner, my parents would scoop Ronnie and me up for the short drive home only to repeat the day beginning in the early morning hours.
My grandpa and grandma fought a long, difficult flight to avoid the Bolsheviks back in the Ukraine (Soviet Union) as this group, led by Vladimir Lenin, would soon become the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and represent the animosity and hatred that the Communist Party opened-up and enforced on the people.
My grandparents were so proud to have been able to bring over from the Motherland pieces of furniture that were a part of their heritage via their own parents and would serve to keep them grounded in this foreign land they had adopted as their own. This land is where their own children were born, loved, and raised as citizens of the United States. My American (Ukrainian) aunts and uncles became math teachers, a Russian History and Language professor, a Master Electrician, an Executive Secretary, mothers and housewives raising their own young citizens in a land that opened its arms as wide as possible to those seeking refuge and kindness while their feet were being planted firmly on the ground.
I am most proud of the fact that both of my grandparents studied the Constitution, passed the test, and became citizens of the United States in the mid 1950’s!
Late summer of 1975, we were invited to a family reunion which included my Ukrainian relatives living in the States and a large contingency of Ukrainian relatives who had remained, survived in, or returned to the Motherland to settle in or around the city of Kiev. They flew over to the Chicago area for several weeks to meet their American relatives. How fortunate we all were to mingle with and talk about our own experiences and try to understand what gave us internal strength and self-confidence along the individual paths we followed.
I am very proud to acknowledge my Ukrainian roots—even more so now that my maternal ancestry, including the land, her people, and politicians, has been enduring an unwanted conflict with Russia for over two years and, miraculously, continues to hold tight even when recent aid has not been forthcoming! They are a strong, resilient people who, because they remain grounded to their heritage and the land they love so much, fight long and hard and by whatever means necessary to keep what is rightfully theirs.
As a citizen of the United States living in America, I feel I am grounded by family and the long roots of freedom that my ancestors desired and fought to achieve. Arriving in a new land to work and put down your own roots without speaking the language or knowing how family and friends were surviving back home, had to be difficult. To find employment, marry, and raise children in this new land is quite admirable.
I am a product of sturdy, ambitious, and brave individuals who escaped death only to bring life into this world—including my own. I am eternally grateful for this. Because of Alexandria and Antone’s hard work and belief in themselves, I live a sustainable existence today and possess a firm and unwavering foundation with love in my heart and feet planted firmly on the ground.
Copyright © 2024 by Jacqueline E Hughes
All rights reserved
