NATALIA DIDUCH
Date and Place of Birth: 1955 in Montréal, Québec
Date of Interview: November 10, 2015
Place of Interview: Toronto, Ontario
Interviewer: Sophia Isajiw
Length of Interview: 01:55:53 (raw)
Mother (Survivor): Ewdokia Trokhymovna Myronenko Opariek, b. March 3, 1925 in Kotelva, Poltavska oblast, Ukraine
(Excerpt):
“But my mother was a survivor. At my mother’s похорон [funeral] in June of this year [2015], I of course had her eulogy and I said: ‘If anybody were to ask me to describe my mother with one word it would be a survivor. It’s all she knew how to do. In fact, dying was not easy.’ My mum passed away at home, in her own home, at the age of 90, with of course my help, and the system I helped to create, they were there for her, palliative care at home, no hospital for her! Absolutely! And two days before she passed one of her personal support workers who came to love her very much started to cry. And she said, ‘Why you crying? Why you crying?’ And she says: ‘Oh, I don’t want you to die. She says: ‘I’m not dying!’ Right up until the end, not something we talked about; it was ingrained, it was ingrained. And the Holodomor was responsible, absolutely, absolutely. But that tenacity, I guess, is characteristic, that is shared amongst many Ukrainians, but I like to think that that tenacity that I’ve inherited from my mama and tato [father] – you know when I’m stubborn it’s “впертий Гуцул” [stubborn Hutsul] but otherwise it’s “горда Полтавчанка” [proud girl from Poltava region]. I think it’s to my mother’s quiet, yet determined, stance in life that you had to do what you had to do in order to survive.”
CROSS REFERENCES:
• Natalie Diduch’s mother, Ewdokia Myronenko Kotelva, is interviewed in the book Ukrainian Holocaust: 1932-1933 #5/ Український Голокост: 1932-1933 #5, (UCRDC, 2008), Pp: 244-253.
• Natalie Diduch’s mother, Ewdokia Myronenko Kotelva, interviewed in article by Erica Bajer, “Famine Survivor Remembers Holodomor.” The Standard, St. Catherine’s, Ontario 21 November 2011: Print. Online version: http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/2011/11/21/famine-survivor-remembers-holodomor
• Natalie Diduch’s mother, Ewdokia Myronenko Kotelva, referenced in a speech by Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne (L) at the Holodomor Education Reception and Legislative Assembly at Queen’s Park, Toronto, May 26, 2015 http://www.lucorg.com/news.php/news/9074/popup/true
• Natalie Diduch’s mother, Ewdokia Myronenko Kotelva, interviewed on CFMB: AM 1280 multilingual Canadian radio station (Ukrainian Time / Український Час) located in Montreal, Quebec. Audiotape, 1983-85. (Needs to still be digitized for archives).
• Natalie Diduch’s mother, Ewdokia Myronenko Kotelva, online obituary notice with 45 family photographs
The interviews can be accessed at the UCRDC. Please contact us at: office@ucrdc.org
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