Ukrainian invasion hits home for local residents

A 10-hour flight from Kiev, Blaine residents of Ukrainian descent are feeling the heavy impact from Russia’s nearly two-week invasion of Ukraine.

Dolores Jordan, 83, sits in her kitchen on H Street. She holds a photo of her father, who immigrated from Ukraine in the late 1920s, while above her hangs a photo of her Ukrainian mother, who immigrated to Canada with $10 in her pocket when she was 22 years old. 

“I used to go to the end of the bed and cry as a little girl, overhearing my dad talk about being captured by the Polish, Russian and German armies,” she said. Jordan remembers her father’s stories of experiencing extreme hunger and being so cold he cracked his teeth when drinking tea. “These stories have been in my heart all of my life.’”

Jordan’s parents immigrated to Canada right before the Holodomor, a man-made famine that killed millions of Ukrainians from 1932 to 1933. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, threatened by Ukraine’s cultural autonomy, led the genocide by surrounding villages that didn’t meet high grain quotas and restricting villagers to travel across Ukraine for food.

“I want people to get used to hearing the word ‘Holodomor,’” she said. “If you wonder why Ukrainians are so brave and strong, that’s why.”

Jordan never forgot the stories her father told. They inspired Jordan to ask a Ukrainian speaker to write letters to her dad’s family he hadn’t contacted since leaving the country. Jordan’s Ukrainian family wrote back and said her nephew still lived in the house where her father was born in western Ukraine’s Ternopil region. Although Jordan never visited her parents’ homeland, she got to know her dad’s family through the letters, later transitioning to emails to her nephew, Roman.

She sent Roman, a priest in the Ternopil region, a suit for his wedding. Now she’s trying to send him war supplies. Jordan is looking for community members to help her set up a GoFundMe account to send money to her nephew for helmets, food and medical supplies.

“I wish I could do more. I just want to help them,” Jordan said. “I know my parents would want me to.”

The invasion also hit close to home for Blaine resident Gina Williams. Williams was raised in Alberta by a Ukrainian family friend, who inspired her to learn the language. She’s taken months-long trips to Kiev to record five albums and perform with the Academic Choir of the National Radio of Ukraine. Under the international jazz school Williams used to frequent is now being used as a bomb shelter for her friends.

“For a lot of western people watching it, it’s so foreign,” Williams said. “But it’s really not.”

She gets texts in the middle of the night from her friends, some of whom told Williams about hearing bombs nearby while taking night trains out of Kiev.

“A lot are praying and the ones who don’t pray, are swearing,” Williams said.

Williams said she struggles with being able to go along with her daily life while her friends are under attack.

“It’s a difficult balance to be balanced,” she said. “Some people here just don’t get it. They just want to move on with their day. It’s a deep grief you can’t explain.”

Blaine resident Nazar Gamdysey moved to Blaine from the Soviet Union in 1990 as a refugee at a time when any form of religion was prohibited in the Soviet Union. Gamdysey left when he was 10 years old, but still remembers as a child the police coming to his house during bible study and his grandfather being jailed.

Gamdysey, who is involved with the Ukrainian Evangelical Church of Bellingham, said he and many other people in Whatcom County have friends and family in both Russia and Ukraine.

“It’s so hard for our congregation because it’s mixed,” he said of the Slavic church. “We don’t support the war. It’s brotherly countries that are fighting.”

Gamdysey said he’s heard of people in Whatcom County looking at Russian residents differently during the conflict, but said everyone he knows is standing in unity.

“The Slavic people who immigrated here, they immigrated here for a reason,” he said. “If they’re here, they left that country for a different life.”

Gamdysey’s church is raising funds for pastors and congregations in Ukraine. The Bellingham church is in the process of being rebuilt after an arsonist burned it down last September, so checks with “Ukraine” in the subject line can be sent to P.O. Box 2096, Blaine, WA.

“All the local community can do is pray,” Gamdysey said. “It’s innocent people on both sides and it’s sad the politicians couldn’t figure things out in a peaceful way.”

While sitting at her kitchen table, Jordan said she’s afraid her father’s stories will repeat themselves.

“What they’re fighting for is land and what they’re fighting for is culture,” Jordan said. “If they can take over the land, they can take over the culture.”

How to help

• The Ukrainian Evangelical Church of Bellingham is accepting donations. People can write a check to the church, with “Ukraine” in the subject line, and send it to its P.O. Box 2096, Blaine, WA. The money will go to congregations in need.

• United Nations Ukraine Crisis Response – The United Nations has ways to help Ukraine’s crisis response, help refugees and support food delivery. To donate, visit un.org/en/ukrainecrisisresponse/donate.

• Magdalena’s Bistro and Crêperie in Bellingham is collecting supplies for Ukraine. The Polish bakery said on its Facebook page that it is prioritizing medical supplies because of shipping delays. The bakery is open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. To contact Magdelena, call 360/483-8569 or visit @Magdelenascreperie on Facebook and Instagram.

• The Ukrainian Association of Washington state is accepting donations via its website, bit.ly/3vOJaKW. People can select where they want their donations to go – medical supplies to hospitals, civilian defense, life-saving tactical medicine and displaced families and orphans. The association said March 6 on its Facebook page that hospital medical supplies and protective gear are in highest demand.

• The Seattle Polish Foundation is matching up to $5,000 from donors. To donate to the nonprofit, visit bit.ly/3tGdtB5.

• The Red Cross in Ukraine is taking donations on its website, bit.ly/35F5wnD.

• Blaine resident Dolores Jordan is looking for someone to set up a GoFundMe account to get donations to her nephew, Roman, who is a priest in the Ternopil region. Jordan wants to raise money for helmets, food, medicine and clothes. She can be contacted at dkjordan1@gmail.com.