MOVING ON.....2024

A Note From The Author: Jacqueline E. Hughes

I am so happy to welcome in the new year, 2024!!! My Blog is changing-up a bit....mainly because I am evolving. Travel will always take precedence in my life and, my journeys will be shared with you. This 2024 version will offer a variety of new stories and personal ideas, as well. This is all about having fun and enjoying this Beautiful Journey called......Life!!!

Thursday, April 7, 2022

“THE ONLY LESSON YOU CAN LEARN FROM HISTORY IS THAT IT REPEATS ITSELF”

 



A series of essays.....




HOLODOMOR: STALIN’S UKRAINIAN GENOCIDE, 1932-1933


.....as seen through my eyes!





By: Jacqueline E Hughes



"Those damn Bolsheviks!" is the quote from my Ukrainian Grandfather, Antone Moshak, that has lived deep inside my soul ever since I was a little girl. He was so adamant and repetitious that it became my grandfather's 'battle cry' and was guaranteed to set the stage for many evening conversations. He could be stubborn as a mule and, as I grew older, with several history lessons later, I began to understand why.


“The only lesson you can learn from history is that it repeats itself,” is a quote by the author of the book The Great Pearl of Wisdom, Bangambiki Habyarimana. This quote, in time, may serve to gauge and determine the future of our world as we know it. Will we continue to allow history to repeat itself as if on a looped playback continuously showing us pictures of inhumane atrocities such as the Irish Potato Famine in the nineteenth century, the Jewish Holocaust from the period of 1933 to 1945, and the recent starvation tactics of the Syrian civil war with all of the innocent victims and refugees it has created?


How does the world perceive Vladimir Putin and his current atrocities against the people of Ukraine? Is it strictly a land grab or will history proclaim his actions as the genocide of the Ukrainian people with the direct intention of totally destroying them, their history, their culture, their identity?

 

"Miscellaneous thoughts and insights on life come to me when I am alone gazing at the starry sky at night, walking by the sea, through the wood, watching people at a party, going to the market, by a chance encounter, or when my sleep fails me." An author of nineteen distinct works, Bangambiki Habyarimana is a community worker who assists young adults in the fight against HIV AIDS through education and counseling in Mozambique. He is a young man who is wise way beyond his years.


Reading Bangambiki's quote, I can recall the remote look in my grandfather's eyes. How much loss and sorrow can people take before breaking down completely? The war in Ukraine has served to reintroduce Holodomor and its relationship to what is taking place in this beautiful country currently.


If you've never heard of the term Holodomor before, you are not alone. It may even sound like a character straight out of a J. R. R. Tolkien novel. Sadly, it is not. Learning about Holodomor, pronounced 'huh-luh-duh-more,' I can identify with the distant look in grandpa's eyes that filled with unequivocal hatred with each cry of "Those damn Bolsheviks!"  


The literal Ukrainian definition of the word Holodomor is: "Death by forced starvation."


My recent inquisitiveness was sparked by a gentleman by the name of Bobby Leigh. I met Bobby online and his vibrant and colorful personality enriched my imagination right from the beginning! Bobby is a twelve-time, Award Winning Filmmaker and has over twenty-five years in the Music and Entertainment Business where he has produced and/or toured with such Rock-n-Roll legends as AerosmithKissLynyrd Skynyrd, and Quiet Riot, to name a few. As an author, film director, producer, actor, and visionary, Bobby is a very busy person.


On November 17, 2015, Bobby shared a press release on his Facebook Page that immediately caught my attention:


"PRESS RELEASE: My Film "HOLODOMOR: Ukraine's Genocide" will be screening in SAN FRANCISCO this Weekend on Saturday 21 November 2015 at the Main San Francisco Public Library at 2:00-4:00 PM. Koret Auditorium, lower level. FREE. Please come and show support for our movie. Q & A following screening with writer/director/producer: Bobby Leigh & producer: Marta Tomkiw."


Logline: “The biggest lie, the best kept secret.”


Considering my family's roots and knowing that many of my relatives live in the Ukraine today and, God willing, are surviving Putin’s regime, I needed to view this film for myself back then. I was hoping it could shed even more light on the hatred my grandfather held in his heart for Russia. Short of flying out to California, I wrote to Bobby and asked where and when it might be showing near me or if I could purchase a copy of "Holodomor" for myself. Up to this point in my life, I had yet to see pictures, film or any footage of this horrific event that would help me understand this deep, dark, and sad history of the Ukrainian people.  Bobby's longline seemed to be holding true: “The biggest lie, the best kept secret.”


I presumed that his great passion for exposing this dark secret in history was connected with his own heritage and asked him if this were the case. In true Bobby fashion, he replied, "I'm not Ukrainian. I made this movie because, once I found out about this subject, I was pissed off that I was not taught this at University. I felt that this story needed to be told." He proceeded to send me a copy of his film for my perusal.


I must ask how many of you are familiar with this historical event yourselves? If you are, when and where were you exposed to it? Did you learn about it in any level of your formal education? Do you have family or friends who talked about it? Considering the Holodomor is a major blot on the history of the world, equal to the Holocaust, (which means "sacrifice by fire"), brought about by the Nazis who came to power in Germany in 1933, why isn't it as prominent within our fundamental education?


I know that Bobby must have asked himself this last question a million times.


If over six million Jews could be obliterated by a regime led by Hitler under the auspices of racial superiority, blind power, and pure hatred, then how could over 30,000 men, women, and children in Ukraine die each day in the height of this famine-genocide in 1933 and the world not be aware of it? 


To get the answer to this question, one must look briefly into the history of Russia. 


In 1917, the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, take power in Russia. The Soviet Union is formed in 1922 with Ukraine becoming one of the republics. Soon afterwards, Lenin dies and Joseph Stalin ascends to power and introduces a program of agricultural collectivization in 1928 that forces farmers to give up everything they own to factory-like collective farms......and then were told to work on these farms in order to exist with no compensation whatsoever. 


Proud and successful Ukrainian farmers, labeled Kurkuls, refuse to return to earlier serfdom and in 1929 Stalin introduces a policy of 'class warfare' in order to breakdown resistance. The following year, nearly a half a million people are dragged from their homes, packed into freight trains and shipped to remote areas such as Siberia where they are left to perish from starvation and inclement weather.


Between 1932 and 1933, the entire population of Ukrainian villages are wiped-out due to the blockades erected around them preventing the transport of food from the outside into them and  locking the hungry inside. Joseph Stalin of Russia is determined to 'teach a lesson through famine' and, ultimately, deals a crushing blow to the backbone of Ukraine, it's rural population.


By 1934, approximately ten million deaths, including three million children, and nearly twenty-five percent of the Ukrainian population, are attributed to starvation within the borders of Soviet Ukraine, not including deportation, executions, or natural deaths. Stalin denies forced famine in the Ukraine and continues to export millions of tons of grain to the outside world. 


Denial, denial, denial was generated on all sides of this horrific situation which included Western governments who adopted a passive attitude toward the famine, even though they had become aware of the suffering in Ukraine via confidential diplomatic channels. Franklin Roosevelt, newly elected in 1933, recognized Stalin's government and turned a 'blind eye' to the famine due to a lucrative trade agreement with the Soviet Union. Shame on all of us who see monetary gain and power as the holy grail rather than the bane of our existence. Definitely, another prime example of history repeating itself.


Early on, my grandparents lived through and recognized the inevitable results of the Bolshevik uprising. To pull-up stakes, forsake family ties, and emigrate to an unknown place, put them at risk every step of the way. Survival itself takes on its own risks and would it not be better to hope for a future and do something about it than to perish with no hope left at all? Literally, standing here today, I am most grateful to my proud and heroic grandparents for choosing to be safe and free, no matter what the cost.


It is because of good people like Bobby Leigh and others associated with Moksha Films who recognized injustice and chose  to expose it rather than keep it under wraps like a skeleton pushed into the depths of a dark closet filled with secrets and blatant denials. Bobby's documentary, "HOLODOMOR: Ukraine's Genocide," should be adapted to all languages, viewed, discussed, analyzed, and included in every school curriculum throughout the world until this tragic famine-genocide of the Ukrainian people is recognized and catalogued for what it was, an atrocity against millions of innocent people for political and personal gains. 


Thank you, Bobby Leigh.....!


On November 28, 2006, according to The Connecticut HolodomorCommittee, the Parliament of Ukraine passed a decree defining the Holodomor as a deliberate 'Act of Genocide.' Although the Russian government continues to call Ukraine's depiction of the famine a "one-sided falsification of history," it is now recognized as genocide by over two dozen nations. 


Many Ukrainians survived to give eyewitness accounts of this abomination. Bobby has featured several survivors and their brief testimonies in his documentary. Their personal recollections sent chills down my spine as I watched their tears flow freely when speaking about personal experiences during this execution by hunger.


The Spanish philosopher and poet, George Santayana, once said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Are we doomed to repeat the past by being so disingenuous as many of our politicians and leaders are today? My hope is that the solemn words of Bangambiki Habyarimana are incorrect when he says, "The only lesson you can learn from history is that it repeats itself." 


Only by understanding the genocide of the past can we hope to prevent others from occurring in our lifetime. Yet, armed with all of this information, we may already be too late as the unprovoked war rages in Ukraine claiming thousands of innocent civilian lives. We must aid the Ukrainian military in every way possible before statistics prove that all hope is fleeting. The world owes Volodymyr  Zelenskyy and the beautiful people of Ukraine the dignity of life they so deserve; along with the worldwide recognition of war crimes being committed by Russia every day.


Now that I understand my grandfather better, I realize that the stoic look emanating from his ancient eyes culminated from deep within him as he constantly remembered what was, and was saddened by never being able to know what could have been. 


Lovingly, I dedicate this essay to my Ukrainian Grandmother and Grandfather, Alexandria and Antone Moshak and to the fortitude displayed by the people of Ukraine. Glory to Ukraine!






You can visit Bobby online at: 

 www.facebook.com/BobbyLeighAuthor

www.HOLODOMORthemovie.com    



Copyright © 2022 by Jacqueline E Hughes

All rights reserved

Thursday, March 31, 2022

HARMONY

 

A series of essays….




BETWEEN BOUTS OF TUSSLING AND THE SHEER FRENZY
OF ACTIVE PLAYTIME…THESE MOMENTS OF
HARMONY, BLISSFULLY, EXIST.


….as seen through my eyes!





By: Jacqueline E Hughes


Harmony is the balance we seek within a world that has become so unstable, off kilter, and often, oppressive and dangerous. Harmony is a relationship in which various components exist together in peace. The harmonious framework of life that allows humans of all races, every species of bird and fish, all of the colors and sounds of a lush forest in summertime, to live in agreement with one another as a whole; congruity. It is the sweet spot in a musical composition that reminds us that things could be and have been different when all of the players are in cooperation with one another while playing any given piece; agreeable sounds that are consistent, orderly, and the pleasing arrangement of all its known parts.


It may seem to us that it’s only been recently that the world has become biased and unfairly prejudiced within its distorted judgment of right and wrong, good vs. evil, and its creation of a jaundiced viewpoint that leaves us with a bitter, cynical, and hostile environment in which to live. Let’s remind ourselves that there has always been, throughout the span of time, aggression; one individual or group that has denied others their right to live free and balanced by the outstretched hand of a harmonious state of being. Humankind has always been challenged by someone who desires to disrupt the positive balance of life through their greed, need for power, and general lack of scruples, or the logical motivation derived from ethical and moral principles.  Their exaggerated sense of self-importance, the ego, thrives within them casting its negativity across the land behind a self-righteous smokescreen of manipulative lies and falsehoods.


Harmony must be consciously sought-after and attained before the people of the world can exist without destroying one another.  It must become our priority and preemptive action before dealing with those who desire the disruption of peace in order to fulfill ancient and strong habits of annihilation and obtain power over others. As with different kinds of fish living in harmony in rivers, lakes, and streams, so must humankind understand that relationships are built on trust and the idea that various components can exist side-by-side in a harmonious fashion. It would be considered most prudent to pass all of our positive lessons on to the generations that follow with a strong emphasis on peace, mindfulness, and the sterling hope for a much more cooperative, kind, and loving world to live in. We can then, and only then, know the true meaning of living in harmony—for years to come. It can be done and it will be done. We Must Believe.



Copyright © 2022 by Jacqueline E Hughes

All rights reserved





















Saturday, March 26, 2022

IN MY JOY

 


A series of essays….



THE EARTH’S EQUATOR IS ALIGNED DIRECTLY WITH 
THE SUN ON THE VERNAL EQUINOX

….as seen through my eyes!





By: Jacqueline E Hughes



I am such a lucky person. I’m in my joy! Truly, I am! Nobody can take it from me. I keep telling myself this every day and it’s been well worth it. Hearing it often helps me know that it’s legitimate and that each day will hold new, interesting, and even great things for me to look forward to, contemplate and absorb. It’s all based on the natural blending of imagination and truth. Honestly, if we lose the magical touch of this powerful combination, we could be doomed as a human race and sentenced to a zombie-like existence like those being portrayed in many movies and comic books.


Last Monday afternoon we were swept-up in a whirlwind of blue milk caps, pieces of newsprint, and discarded medicine bottles (empty, of course) that were being tamed by a Lion Queen wielding a wooden chair and a bullwhip. It was explained that the reason ‘she writes’ is because her voice is not heard, and it certainly must be. A person requires two things in order to survive: harmony and buttonholes. The fact is that we, like the stars, are never, truly, finished. We can imagine through multiple scenarios the instant our parents met one another and danced together, sweet and slow. Finally, through a project that is affectionately called, Stickhenge, we learned that it’s possible to recreate Stonehenge, the only surviving lintelled stone circle in the world, with broomsticks and capture the March equinox in our own backyard using fortitude, scientific data, patience, and unequaled parts of imagination and truth. 


Interesting note: did you know that in the 1830’s until around 1850 in the United Kingdom, it was very popular to have females tame lions and tigers in a managerie or collection of captive animals for the purpose of entertainment? These ladies were known as Lion Queens.


That’s quite a bit of reassurance of our own worth and self importance tucked away in just a couple of hours on a sunny afternoon in late March! That’s what you get when eight ladies occupy their seats around a large table within a room that is part of one of the best independent bookstores I’ve ever known, Kazoo Books, located on Parkview Avenue in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Especially when, as a group, we had not met in person (only Zoom meetings) for way too many months. Believe me when I tell you that the conga line for giving and receiving hugs was joyful, and long overdue!


We are the Ladies of Voices, as I like to refer to us, or more accurately, Voices on the Margin, a poetry group that not only studies the lives of various poets near and far, but takes it one step further by writing our own poetry based upon their style and visage of life in general while giving thought toward the poet’s writing technique and/or subject matter of each work. Often our poets have engaged in other forms of writing, such as fiction or nonfiction essays and novels. Familiarizing ourselves with each individual, whether a contemporary or posthumously, female or male, encourages us to open ourselves up to ideas and challenges we may not have thought about before. 


Our inspiration for this day was the Detroit born poet and clinical psychotherapist in private practice, Ken Meisel, who is exceptionally interesting, especially among many of us who have lived, worked in, or even only visited the Detroit area. 


Initially, we cornered the market, so to speak, on women poet laureates including Carol Ann Duffy, Joy Harjo, Molly Fisk, Tracy K. Smith, and Natasha Trethewey. In the spirit of fair practice, we have studied the works of Jack Ridl, local writer, educator, and poet who has created several exceptional poetry editions that inspire us to learn more about the importance of our everyday life and then write about it—simply and honestly. 


The convenience of Zoom meetings has offered our group the ability to include local published poets and have them share their personal work, thoughts, and ideas, with us. Kathleen McGookey has published four books of prose poems and three chapbooks, most recently Instructions for My Imposter (Press 53) and Nineteen Letters(BatCat Press). She has also published We’ll See, a book of translations of French poet Georges Godeau’s prose poems. She has graced us with all of the charm and benevolence of the talented person she is by giving us an evening of talk, reading selected poems, and answering the questions of ‘would like to be published’ poets.


Because we, the Ladies of Voices, have scheduled a Zoom reading of our own poetry, soon, we have had to reach back into the archives and select five minutes worth of work to share with family and friends. In doing so, I was amazed by the many pieces I’d written and accumulated throughout the years! Many I had not read for months and it felt amazing to pull them back into the light, once again.


I am proud of all of us. We are in our joy and not a single person can take that away from us. To be a part of this group is to hold the future in our hands; sharing  with others how wonderful it is to learn and physically create entire worlds from our own imaginations, talk about them with each other, all the while educating our sensibilities via published writers who have gone through this process for years themselves.


If you haven’t already, may I suggest awakening your ‘Joy’ by joining a poetry or writing group. Maybe your thing is working with clay, dancing and singing, painting, cooking, or any other activity that makes you happy and might, just might, give you a new lease on life. Enjoy to the fullest extent whatever it is you choose to do!


Copyright © 2022 by Jacqueline E Hughes

All rights reserved








Thursday, March 10, 2022

ANTONE AND ALEXANDRIA

 


A series of essays….




MY UKRAINIAN GRANDPARENTS ON THEIR WEDDING DAY:
ANTONE AND ALEXANDRIA MOSHAK


….as seen through my eyes!




By: Jacqueline E Hughes



Russian forces bombed a maternity and children’s hospital in Mariupol in southern Ukraine on Wednesday. Babies, pregnant mothers, women in labor were all inside! The attack came despite Russia agreeing to a 12-hour pause in hostilities. “How much longer will the world be an accomplice ignoring terror?” asks President Zelenskyy of Ukraine.


I believe that good gives everyone and all actions the benefit of the doubt while evil  immediately takes over, suffocates everything good with its lies and brute force, and removes all semblance of good and its imminent possibilities. Timing is everything, my friends. This is dedicated to the bold determination of the Ukrainian people!




At the beginning of this unprovoked, horrendous war orchestrated by Vladimir Putin, I sat listening to the Ukrainian negotiation delegation holding a press conference in Lviv with foreign and Ukrainian news media. My mind wandered back in time to my grandparents home in Mishawaka, Indiana and me asking questions about this rhythmic, Slavic language singsonging in my head; holding me hostage in the past and now, doing the same in the present.




THE HOME PAPA BUILT ON CEDAR STREET IN
MISHAWAKA. HE DUG OUT THE BASEMENT 
AND LAID EACH BRICK HIMSELF.


Antone and Alexandria. According to the sound of their names, they could have ruled their own Slavic nation and brought goodness into an evil world. Actually, after having twelve children plus enduring three miscarriages, they could have easily populated their little nation, as well.


Frustration at not being able to understand what my grandparents were saying to one another prompted me to ask my Papa Moshak to teach us, his grandchildren, the language he brought over from his homeland. Because he did not speak English well, he always hesitated to comply. Oh, how I wish he could have taught us this major part of our heritage! He had brought over language course books but told my Mother they were all in Russian, not Ukrainian. I didn’t know the difference. But, he certainly did. He told my mother that it was all he could grab before leaving his homeland for America.


We were given tantalizing bits and pieces here and there, for example: Give me a little kiss (дай мені трохи поцілунку), hush your mouth (заткни свій рот) this was usually accompanied by the contact of my mother’s foot on our shin under the dining table, I love you (я тебе люблю), which was, of course, the best one of all! 


Mother and her eleven siblings were not taught to speak Ukrainian either. Sadly, Ukraine was a place they all wanted to distance themselves from as they were Americans, born and bred. Papa and Grandma only reminded them of a life to run away from; one with no future possibilities, one best to leave behind.




MY MOTHER, OLGA, STANDING SECOND FROM
THE RIGHT IN THE SECOND ROW WITH MOST
OF HER SIBLINGS. I AM THE BABY SITTING 
ON MY GRANDMOTHER’S LAP.


As this complicated sounding language flowed from the TV into my head, I had to wonder what the difference is between the Ukrainian and Russian languages. Despite their similar origins, there have been enough factors to push these languages into their distinct branches today, including time, culture, and politics. Papa told us that the Ukrainian language was greatly influenced by the Polish language. Recently, through Ancestry.com, I’ve learned that the small village grandma grew up in, Strae, Ukraine, is located a short distance from the Ukrainian/Polish border. 


Grandma’s delicious dumplings, pedaheh, were our ultimate comfort food, filled with cheesy potatoes, or dried plums, or sauerkraut, they were similar to Polish pierogi but, lovingly made just for us by grandma. Her borscht was never my favorite meal with its sour taste, deep purple color, and dollop of sour cream on top. I remember crushing as many saltine crackers into it as possible to create something palatable and always under the scrutiny of grandma’s penetrating gaze.


Thinking about all of the things we’ve seen, learned about, discovered, wondered about, and often failed to discern in one human lifetime only makes me wonder even more about everything we know absolutely nothing about and may never learn within one go around on this fragile planet.


During his State of the Union Address, President Biden spoke about our veterans being exposed to burn pits; the toxic equivalent to Agent Orange during the war in Vietnam. The first I’d heard of burn pits was when our troops evacuated Afghanistan this past year. And, even then, I had to do some research to fully understand what was going on. I suppose it does make sense to destroy everything you’ve touched and utilized during the occupation of another country in order to erase your information and undermine its influence on your enemy. But, at what cost?


Isn’t Russia playing by its own rules in the attempt to destroy everything touched by the Ukrainians, especially the children,  in a blatant act of erasing them as people altogether?


What many veterans are having to live through now, with their health in jeopardy, is merely one true cost of war, I know. (Making mental lists as I type this article.) Having knowledge of the use of burn pits, even after the fact, has enlightened many of us to the hazards of war created by the one institution that should always have the welfare of all of its people in mind—the Federal Government. As Commander in Chief, President Biden is introducing a bill to aid all veterans suffering from the lasting affects of burn pits.


As this unprovoked war on the kind people of this beautiful country of Ukraine wages on, many of us who have this noble blood flowing through us intensely react to their deep pain and sorrow. We pray for ultimate reasoning and fundamental peace to emerge from the ashes of this nonsensical conflict. May the uncompromising spirit of the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, spread its strength across the nation as he displays both bravery and media savvy during the Russian invasion.




VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY
PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE
A TRUE WAR HERO


Now, I don’t know if Antone and Alexandria, my Ukrainian grandparents, ever stepped foot in the historic and beautiful cities of Kyiv, the capital city, or Odessa (Odesa), the port city on the Black Sea in southern Ukraine. I hope they did. They were both born and raised in separate villages that bordered on Poland and were quite a distance from the capital city of Ukraine. Leaving your small village to travel around your own country was considered a luxury and one not readily available to all Ukrainian citizens. By the time they both escaped the terror reigned upon them during the Bolshevik Revolution beginning in November of 1917 and led by Vladimir Lenin, whose regime would soon create the first communist country called the U.S.S.R., they met one another in the United States. Each escaping the terror of their homeland in order to create a better life here, they married and raised a large family in upstate Indiana.


Olga, my mother, was the kindest most sensitive parent any child could have and with her fiery red hair framing porcelain skin sprinkled with sun kissed freckles, she epitomized the ‘Daughter of Ukraine’ in so many ways. When grandma passed at the early age of fifty-six, my mother lost her best friend; her true tie to the land she would never visit.





VLADIMIR LENIN, FORMER PREMIER AND
DICTATOR OF THE SOVIET UNION
Photo courtesy of The Guardian



Given the current war instigated by yet another brutal Russian dictator, as well as the many conflagrations foisted upon the Ukrainian people during, as well as since she and Papa fled to the west, Alexandria could explain to my mother firsthand the important role that the western countries of Europe have taken in aiding refugees fleeing Ukraine. Olga could learn, via her own parents, how history constantly repeats itself. 


Now is not the time to let up; Putin must fail. Since the end of the Cold War, we took our eyes off the ball and allowed people to harm one another, again. This time around we are defending democracy and the right of an independent nation to embrace the freedoms they had worked so hard to obtain. 


Will this latest war open up our own eyes to the possibility of losing something as precious as our own democratic beliefs? Will it help to pull our country together and make us understand how important our freedoms truly are? What is Putin’s endgame? These are the questions we should be asking. I see a lonely, confused, and desperate man seated at the end of one of his long tables in the Kremlin.


Yes, I wish I had been taught how to speak the Ukrainian language by my grandparents, if only to bring me that much closer to a heritage that I am so proud to be a part of. As my distant cousins, perhaps sleeping in metro stations and basements in an attempt to survive another day, hold their children close as they wipe away their tears, my arms are opened wide letting them know it will be okay; we are here for you.




ST. ANDREW’S CHURCH -
KYIV, UKRAINE

 

Courtesy: Art, Culture, and Civilization


Believing in Antone and Alexandria keeps hope alive. There is a stronger, better world that will outshine the rocket’s red glare and bombs crushing the life from the Ukrainian people today. However, their spirit, so far, remains intact and we must all help to keep it this way until the monster hiding under the bed (behind the Kremlin walls) is defeated!


I thank you, Grandma and Papa, for your courage so long ago. The darkness and shame people carry having to leave a place in fear for reasons of self preservation surely must have been eased by your love for your children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. We feel blessed by your courage every day of our lives.


The more love you put out in the world, the more you get back..




WITH LOVE TO UKRAINE
AND HER AMAZING PEOPLE!



Copyright © 2022 by Jacqueline E Hughes

All rights reserved