The Memory Keeper of Kyiv

by Erin Litteken

“Olha is priceless, but I have brought these gifts in my appreciation of her.”

“Just make it through today, and hope tomorrow will be better.”

“That’s because these sunflowers connect us to our fondest family memories. And as long as we have those, we will always have each other.”

A farmer plants and nurtures today, so he can harvest a good crop in the future. You must always look to the future.”

“Do you know death is not the end? It’s just another reality. In the old world, we knew that. We welcomed the dead into our homes. We set places for them at the table at Christmas. Held feasts in their honor.

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.”

Hours. Days. All meaningless markers of her grief.

“You must understand, no one spoke of those things. Stalin denied the famine, and the world believed him because they needed his force to beat the Nazis.