Making connections...

Good Morning! I chanced upon the new hardcover novel called Prisoner in the promised Land The Ukrainian Internment Diary of Anya Soloniuk at the last school book fair - and of course! I could not resist buying a copy for my shelf. I am not that far into the story yet. However, it is the connections that I am making to my own heritage that I find amazing.

This story is set in 1914, which is about 6 years later than when my own paternal grandmother came to Canada from the Ukraine with her family. No one knows exactly what year it was, but they did settle initially on the prairies in a sod home. My grandmother would be the first white woman into a fairly remote area of Northern Ontario about 1918, when she was about eighteen years old. She married a man who worked on the railway, and she would birth seven children. My father was the fifth child born in 1927.

My grandmother would earn a reputation with other immigrants and the native people alike; she never turned anyone away from her door who need food or help. She was also the local midwife. Until her death in 1982, local native people would bring her fish weekly, as a tribute to her contribution.

This novel addresses some of the issues around the Ukrianian culture, and settling into the new land of Canada. Ukrainian immigrants were often called The Men in the Sheepskin Coats because they brought these with them from their homeland. They were hard working farmers in their homeland, and they brought this work ethic and knowledge to Canada. The novel also refers to Canadian people calling the Ukrainian immigrants "dirty" and "bohunks." I can remember the first time my father shared this part of history with me many years ago.

We teach children to make connections as they read. I am making connections too, to events from nearly 100 years ago.