KUNANEC SYLVIA

Date and Place of Birth: May 16, 1924  Malyi Khodachkiv, Ternopil obl.

Date of Interview: Feb 17, 2021

Place of Interview: Toronto, Ontario

Interviewer: Mykola Swarnyk

Length of Interview: 1h 25 min

(Excerpt):

S.K. This was during the 1st war. And my grandparents were in the States at that time. And then, you know, they were evacuated from Khodachkiv, because the front was there. And they were moved to… Yavoriv through the winter. And my mother was with his brother.  He was the big boss. He was always bossing them. Babcia [grandma] didn’t do about it. And, so, they were there through the winter, and then when the front was over, they came back. But when they went to Yavoriv, they had a cow and they walked the cow all the way there. My mother. And… when they got to Yavoriv, the lady, where they were stay with, she didn’t want them, you know… So, they slept outside in the winter time. My mother said: - When we evoked, we were all covered with snow. The only one was my mother’s sister Stefka – she was the youngest, and that lady, that they came to, took her in the house. The rest stayed outside. And then, when they were ready to come home… But after a while she get to know the family and she took them in. And then they came back – my mother says – they came back… and nothing – just a shell of the house – no windows, no doors, and this is spring, early spring. No seed of any kind, no tools, nothing. So my mother use to go bagging на друге село [to the next village], because there was nobody [to help] – she says – we didn’t have any bread, nothing. And my mother always went because my mother was very serious, and she always crying, because her older sister was happy-go-lucky one and she use to laugh, and you know – when she goes to the door where she is begging, - when they see her so happy, they don’t want to give her anything (laughing).

I.T. Right, they don’t believe

S.K. So, my mother use to go and she use to cry all the time. And that worked! Вона торбу принесла сухого хліба… Barefooted. Я не знаю, де вона ходила на жебри [I don’t know where she went for bagging]. But she always says, her sister Stefka – she always worried about her sister. And she always made sure she brought some food for sister, for Stefka. And eventually, I don’t know, where they got the grain, you know, because she said – we had nothing, only the cow. Oh, yeah, she walked the cow from where they were [Yavoriv], and the cow was tired, I guess because its long distance. The cow lay down on the side of the road, and my mother with her – crying… And that’s the way they came home but I don’t know how they got going with the garment and everything.