Growing up, I had a pretty close relationship with my grandma on my mom’s side, Babushka Maya. She was a working woman, a teacher of choir and theory at a music school in Dubno. She somehow managed to work full-time and take care of us, the grandkids, when her own kids were away finishing their degrees or touring or working. Dubno is located two hours away from where I grew up (Lviv), so we frequently visited my grandparents and stayed for weeks, sometimes months during the summer vacation. The best and the worst memories from my childhood were made in Dubno:)) It was my two cousins, Katia and Olia, and I who were “left” with my grandma and grandpa, so I usually had company and a lot of adventures, probably enough for a separate book as we were three very independent girls not afraid of anything.
Our babushka Maya is a fierce woman. She was born the day after Hitler invaded Poland, grew up in a tiny village by Zhitomir. The youngest of four, she doesn’t remember her father during her childhood and youth because he spent over a decade in exile in Kazakhstan. When she was 6-7 years old, he was sent there for his anti-Soviet (pro-nationalistic) views... so it was tough growing up in a small Soviet community where everyone knew what happened. Her life never got any easier even after getting married to a handsome Vasyl at a very young age. They had three children, with their own set of successes and troubles and now four grandchildren. Vasyl left her a widow in 2006 and since then babushka Maya has been living somewhere between Kyiv and Lviv and her native village of Moshkivtsi. She’s still very strong physically and mentally and cannot sit still in one place no matter how much her kids beg her to.
This quick overview of my babushka Maya doesn’t paint a full picture of her, for sure. But I wanted to start this post with it to set the stage of why it was so important for me to make a quick trip to Ukraine! My babushka was turning EIGHTY! So a few month prior I decided that this is a significant event in our family and, therefore, I told everyone in my Ukrainian family that I am going, hoping it would encourage everyone to make a big deal out of her birthday:). And so the preparations for the big party got under way and my sister made arrangements to come visit from India (!) and one of my cousins made plans to come from Paris. And so it actually happened! I left the kids with Robert for a week:)
I flew from Raleigh to Atlanta, Atlanta to Munich and Munich to Kiev with no adventures really. I got through customs and was on the way to my cousin’s house by 3:30 pm while the party was starting around 5 pm. I quickly showered and got ready for the fancy event that was held at a nearby restaurant.
We had prepared a collage of pictures from babushka Maya’s life. It’s not a very typical thing to do these sort of decorations or posters for birthdays, so this was very special. We had the kids draw pictures as well.
We celebrated with a lot of praises and toasts to babushka, stories from her life and singing. My cousin Katia wrote her a song and prepared a slideshow with more exciting pictures from babushka’s life.
We also showed babushka the song that Katya and Alex recorded specially for her the day before I left.
It was wonderful to see so many people come and celebrate her birthday! I love my babushka Maya:)
Here is my mom (her only daughter), babushka and I.
And here is my mom, grandma, sister and I. That is babushka Maya’s smile:)
Oh, and here is Babushka Maya and her four granddaughters--Lyana, Katia (the oldest), Olena (the youngest) and Olia. Plus Mika as a balloon holder:)
We finally went to bed around midnight. I was surviving on pure adrenalin and slept pretty great for at least 8 hours straight. There was no AC and no black out curtains (on the 18th floor), but my sleep mask, ear plugs and a sound machine app helped tremendously.
That morning, my mom and I took a taxi to downtown Kiev to meet up with our good friends, Lyena and Dima Grib that I hadn’t seen in years. They were my parents’ best friends growing up as they lived two floors above us pretty much most of my childhood. They are like family.
I also got to hang out a bit more with my Lyena.
But nowadays she is a busy mama running after Aryan. Love them so much!
After our lunch at one of the downtown restaurants, we took a taxi to the opposite side of the city to visit Babushka Nina. Babushka Nina is my great aunt, my grandpa’s sister. She is also over 80 years old but is still very active, strong and mentally sharp. She owns a small house near Kiev where she grows all her fruits and vegetables, and she is a fantastic cook. So she was ready for our visit with this delicious spread!
We always joke that my mom will look like Babushka Nina when she is her age because that’s what women in the Hornostai side of the family look like:)
Poor Aryan was fighting an eye infection on top of being in a traveling mode. He is such a sweet sweet kid!
My visit in Kiev was very short. The following morning, my mom and I took an early train to Lviv. It was actually very comfortable and convenient, and I slept some of the time. My mom finally got to show me her new apartment in Lviv--she had moved into it since I last visited Ukraine in 2016.
Later that day, after a quick rest, we ventured out to the centre of the city, my most favorite and memorable part of Lviv. Oh how much I missed it! Everything looked so beautiful, familiar and foreign at the same time. So many memories flooded my mind and my heart. I just love my city where I grew up!
Walking down the Market Square, the most popular place for people to hang out.
At first we met up with my mom’s good friend Bohdan. I have known him pretty much my whole life as well--great dude who has been there for my mom for so many years. I keep inviting him to come visit us in the states, so I hope he does.
After having some beautiful pastries at the cafe (and meeting another good friend of my mom who always bakes me layered cakes so that my mom brings them to me in the states), we walked over to another restaurant to meet more friends! I know! I am so popular:)) This is Natella. She is my mom’s friend from when I was little. Her parents were our good friends and neighbors and they used to watch me when I was five years old and my mom was working (as my dad was already serving in a remote assignment). They have known me all these years and heard all about me from my mom’s stories after I left Ukraine.
Now Natella’s daughter, Yana, is married (Levant proposed to her at my sister’s wedding in India) and Yana is actually one of my sister’s best friends! Levant is originally from Turkey but they live in Ukraine. He owns a couple of restaurants in Lviv, so that’s where we met for dinner. They are a very sweet family! I did leave them a glowing review on Tripadvisor as their food and service were fantastic:)
And so my first day in Lviv was very productive. I had so many people that I wanted to see and visit with but I had such a limited time...
My adventures were only starting:)
To Be Continued...
Lyana.
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