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Birdie hadn’t talked in fourteen months, one week, and three days. No reason why today should be any different.
“It’s the same story every time, for centuries. Everyone wants Ukraine’s fertile soil for their own, and nobody wants to let Ukrainians rule it.”
Bobby turned to face Cassie and closed her eyes, as if retreating into herself. Her voice broke as she translated the words into English. “Just make it through today, and hope tomorrow will be better.”
“You must survive this and tell the people of the world what has happened here, so it doesn’t happen again. Use your pencil and paper and weave your beautiful words to keep our memories alive. Don’t let me die in vain, Katya.”
Every night, she tossed and turned, the sweet oblivion of sleep unattainable for her tortured soul.
She felt happier here than she had at her old house, as if she’d shed the hard outer shell of her grief. Cassie found herself smiling and laughing more, like she was slowly waking up from a long hibernation.
That’s what being a mother was—ripping out a piece of your heart and giving it to your child.
My point is, people can move on from loss. You can still have a life, even when you think there’s nothing left, because there is always something to live for.
“This is not about getting us to produce more food,” he said, as the impossibility of survival suddenly became so painfully clear to both of them. “They want us all dead.”
Walter Duranty, from the New York Times, completely refuted that a famine was happening. Hell, he won a Pulitzer for his articles on it. Nobody wanted to believe the ‘breadbasket of Europe’ was being starved to death.”
The state had taken so much from them, but their love survived, even in the darkest times.
What did her pride matter now? It should have vanished long ago. Maybe when she’d eaten the earthworms she dug up in the garden while searching for potatoes, or when she’d boiled an old piece of leather into a soup.
Due to a lack of adequate records, death toll numbers have varied widely through the years. While we’ll never be able to fully calculate the losses, studies in 2018 estimate 3.9 million Ukrainians died in the Holodomor.
