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On March 14, 2011, more than 10 years before Russia’s most recent war on Ukraine began, Sudbury.com published a letter that captured movingly the struggles and enduring spirit of the Ukrainian people.
The letter’s author, Richard deMeulles, recounted how he had received an invitation from Mary Stefura to attend a brunch at the Ukrainian Seniors’ Centre honouring Ukraine’s famed poet, Taras Shevchenko.
DeMeulles explained that he accepted the invitation expecting “cabbage rolls, perohy and the sentimental poems of a dead poet, all served up by sweet grey-haired ladies.” Instead, he explained, he got “a punch to the solar plexus” that knocked the wind out of him.
The recitations of Shevchenko’s poems and readings about his life stirred deMeulles to think deeply about the lived experience of human liberty and its loss. He reflected on the beleaguered history of the Ukrainians, the freedom that generations of them have found on Canadian soil and the contributions they have made to their communities.
DeMeulles was particularly struck by the story he heard about how visitors to Shevchenko’s grave write out on his tombstone in pencil or chalk these words from one of his best-known poems: “Get up and get rid of your shackles.” With every rain the words are washed away, but the words re-appear again and again.
“That’s what the brunch was about,” he concluded, “a celebration of how liberty frees us to create goodness for one another, and a reminder to write the words of freedom again when the rains wash them away.”
He thanks Mary Stefura for helping him "get it."
De Meulles related his new-found insights to world events unfolding around him at the time he wrote his letter, namely the imminent fall of the repressive regime of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya. But de Meulles’ thoughtful reflections take on a prescient meaning given the current state of world affairs.
Ukrainians are facing yet again oppression at the hands of a ruthless aggressor. Elsewhere, countries once committed to democratic ideals are dancing dangerously with authoritarianism and fascism. DeMeulle’s powerful message is one we would do well to heed as we think about the responsibility that we all bear to protect the liberties we enjoy.
Another good reason to re-visit deMeulles’ powerful letter now is his reference to Mary Stefura, who passed away last week.
The letter offers an example of the kind of impact that Mary Stefura often had when she reached out. She, along with her husband, architect John Stefura, who died in 2017, embodied the very spirit and impulse to create that deMeulle recognized as key to building healthy, inclusive communities, where people support and look out for each other. Mary and John Stefura have left an indelible mark not only on Sudbury’s Ukrainian community, but on Sudbury as a whole.
Dorothy Pawluch
Greater Sudbury