A Sweater To Save A Life. By Marta Dyczok. To Be Continued

“I have a nice warm sweater that I’m going to bring in next week,” my 80-something-year-old friend said. We were having coffee after church, as we often do. We had just learned that our church is collecting warm clothes, socks, sleeping bags, and funds for Ukrainians fighting against the Russian-led war.

The campaign is called “Save a Life”. It’s part of a joint initiative by the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Toronto and Eastern Canada, and the Department of the Patriarchal Curia, of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church for Pastoral Care in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

“Please be generous,” the church bulletin reads. The Ukrainian Catholic Women’s League has organized collection boxes in the church hall.

In the novel I’m reading there’s a scene where women are knitting socks and gathering warm things to send to the men fighting overseas during World War I. Who could have thought that a hundred years later women would need to be doing this again.

Hopefully my friend’s sweater will reach a guy like Nick. I came across his FaceBook post where he wrote, “Hallo my dear friends. My name is Nick. I am ordinary Ukrainian soldier. I participate war at the Eastern Ukraine. Last battle I participated was the battle at Doneck Airport. That is why I am being honorly called “Cyborg”. Separatists call us Cyborgs because we managed to stand defending airport buildings 24/7. Thay were amased the way we take the battle. Ordinary soldiers 200 approximately against thousands of russian soldiers which mr. Putin claim that they get lost and somehow appeared near Doneck Airport buildings in Ukraine 300 kilometers from Russian border with guns and armour well equiped etc. & suddenly started to shoot at ukraunians without any reason. Well we started to shoot back. I am ready to write more and answer the questions u ask. Sorry for mistakes. To be continued.”