My grandmother's story

When I was little, I used to visit my grandmother in Kyiv every school holiday or special occasion.

She lived in the city center with her son — my uncle — his wife, who was also my godmother, and their two sons, my cousins.

I loved staying overnight at their apartment — it always felt warm, lively, and full of delicious smells. Grandma’s dinners were something special: homemade borscht, golden pancakes, or sweet pastries that seemed to melt in my mouth. And before bedtime, she always told me a story or a fairytale in her soft, cozy voice — although, to be honest, she usually fell asleep before I did!

Evenings with Grandma in the evenings, Grandma loved to take out the old albums from the lowest shelf of the big wooden wardrobe. She always handled them so carefully, as if each one was a precious treasure.

The albums were thick and heavy, bound in dark leather with golden corners. One album was filled with ancient coins, some dating back to past decades and even centuries. The second one held old postage stamps with pictures of trains, cars, birds, ships — and many other beautiful things. I loved looking at them all; each tiny stamp felt like a doorway into another time and place. There were also other albums, filled with old photographs of relatives from long ago. I didn’t know many of the faces, but it was fascinating to look at them and listen to Grandma’s stories.

Sometimes even she couldn’t remember everyone — some were distant relatives of my late grandfather. The treasures were old, but their stories were alive — singing softly to her heart: “Remember, and pass it on.” They remind me who we are, where we come from, and why family means everything! My other grandmother also liked showing me her old albums and telling funny or touching stories about the family. She once gave me her natural pearl necklace and jewelry made of real turquoise — I still keep them as a memory of her.

It is such a blessing to have grandparents — they teach us to appreciate life and carry wisdom through generations.

I now look back with great love on those years and on my late grandmother, who tried to teach me everything she could. She taught me to cook, to make varenyky, to sew, and to keep our family traditions alive. We all used to gather around a big table for holidays or birthdays, singing songs and laughing together.

I truly miss those times — when everyone was alive, when we lived in one city, and when peace filled our country.

May peace return to the world again, and may families be reunited once more.

My grandma was born at the time when there was the Second World War, but now she almost remembers nothing of the war, those were thought times, right before my grandma was born the Germans left Kiev.

She is saying that the best time was from the 1950s to 1960s when she went to school and after school clubs and when she had a job.

And she is saying that one of the worst times was right after the second world war in around 1943 to 1946 when they had to wait hours to buy food from the small tracks shops which were like our shops nowadays and after, ones my grandma’s sister hit her in head with the huge metal key to take a piece of bread from her mouth, in that time all people were starving because of the war, that is why she did it .

Between the 1920s and 1940s religion was not allowed and people were not allowed to go to church, from 1950s to 1960s people were still afraid to go to church, because they could get expelled from the communistic party of the Soviet Union because if they get expelled from the communistic party of the soviet union then they couldn't even get a job or get to the university and they couldn't even live their normal life anymore.

Starting 1960s - Khrushchev Thaw liberation period started it was more or less a free In 1990 religion became free. Then to go up until the 1990s a lot of people were driving out of the country to sell food and clothes. Around 1991 on the anniversary of Ukraine's independence, my grandmother was so happy that she even danced. Around the 2000s people were filing much better jobs were paying more, the country was free and people were feeling better.