Chance meeting leaves impression on Ukranian woman
Retired editor to make presentation on Canadian politics at Crandall Library
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So this is a reminder for all of us.
Of what we have, of what is important to us and how we need to fight to keep it, and maybe we could do a little bit better job of illuminating the lamp beside the golden door.
The story starts seven years ago in Lake George.
It was May, before the tourists arrive and most of the businesses open up.
Susan Nichols and Roman Jaroush were driving on Route 9 just outside the village and saw a young woman hauling a suitcase that seemed larger than her. We've all seen this scene before. The college kids and workers come from eastern Europe each year to fuel our businesses and ensure the tourists are served properly. They often arrive lost and unaware of their surroundings and how to get help.
Susan and Roman did what so many of us have never done.
They turned around.
They pulled into the parking lot and Susan got out of the car to ask the young woman if she needed help.
Her name was Liza Kobyletska. She was a 20-year-old from Ukraine. She made the 10-hour flight from Kiev, navigated her way from JFK to the Port Authority Bus Terminal and took a bus to Lake George.
All by yourself.
Then, she started walking.
"I missed my turn," Liza said and it was starting to get dark. "I kept telling myself this will soon be over and I can get a hot shower."
"We saw this girl dragging this big suitcase," Susan remembered.
"I'm a girl, I need everything," Liza explained.
"Roman said, we Americans never help anyone, we should give her a ride," Susan remembered.
They pulled into the parking lot next to Liza. Susan got out of the car and found out she was Ukraine. As she put her suitcase into the back of the SUV she whispered to Roman, "She is from Ukraine."
So were Roman's parents.
"I was so scareless," Liza told me, but when she says it, it sounds like it should be a word.
"I was so grateful," Liza continued. "I got into the car and the man was speaking Ukrainian. It was so unexpected. Lucky. Fate."
They took her to the motel where she reserved a room but no one was there. They called the owner and there was no answer so Susan and Roman did what even fewer of us would do. They told her she could stay with them.
Liza stayed a week, maybe two. Roman got her a bicycle so she could get to her job at the Holiday Inn in the village. They reached out to Mayor Bob Blais to help her find a place to live. Roman took her to the Salvation Army to find some clothes. And like so many other young people from eastern Europe she got a second job at an olive oil store.
A couple weeks ago, Susan heard from Liza back in Ukraine.
She is 27 now and has just married. She was in the process of moving from the Sumy Oblast region of Ukraine - it's about 40 kilometers from the border in northeastern Ukraine - to join her husband, who is a border guard.
She told Susan she was afraid for her family because they were near the fighting.
That's when Susan sent me the email.
And told me the story about their chance encounter.
"For me Liza’s life in Ukraine and her time here does put humanity into the political landscape," Susan wrote me. "We are so fortunate to sit in our safe, warm homes without fear of bombs."
So worrying about the price of eggs seems especially trivial in that context and worrying more about our country's failure to support Ukraine seems more important than ever.
Liza still talks in broken English but her fondness for Roman and Susan is clear. It is also clear she is no longer the naïve young woman she was seven years ago. She talks about having confidence in the Army and her president and being discouraged by the things our current president says.
I ask her about her life there now.
"When something nice happens, you can't really enjoy it," Liza says slowly. "Friends of ours had a baby, 3 months old now, but because of the war you worry. We are robbed of so much. Someone close to you is always dying."
Her mother remains in Sumy with her aunt, grandmother and a young cousin.
"She can't be persuaded to leave," Liza says.
She tells me about how her mother loves to take walks around the lake in Sumy and how that lake reminded Liza so much of her summer visit to Lake George.
"I love my country," Liza says. "I don't want to leave it. We have water, we have lights. People are out living and doing their jobs."
They have enough she says.
What does "enough" mean?
"I've been inspired to donate," Liza says. "We are all getting less, but we always find something to donate.
It's then Liza stops and she's back there in Lake George talking about Susan and Roman.
"When I met them I thought they were near 50, but they were much older," Liza said. "They kayak, Roman is out running and climbing the mountain and Susan, what she does hiking 200 kilometers is amazing. It inspired me. It's a great example. Don't stop. You will get everything you want out of life if you don't stop."
She seems to prepared for the fight ahead in her country.
At the age of 26. And it seems so unfair.
"Some day I will come back to Lake George to see Susan and Roman," Liza promises me.
She said she wants to bring her mother and walk with her along the shores of our beautiful lake where it is always peaceful and never a threat of bombs.
Remember that the next time you see a young person hauling a large suitcase on the side of the road.
Canadian history
My long-time colleague and successor as sports editor at The Post-Star, Greg Brownell, retired a couple years ago.
In addition to his passion for anything to do with subways, trains and mass transit, I recently learned Greg has a passion for following Canadian politics.
That has manifested itself into a presentation "Canada's colorful political history" Greg will give at Crandall Public Library on Wednesday, March 12 at 7 p.m.
But I will let Greg describe it in his own words:
"Canadian politics can get pretty wacky. The nation’s multi-party system sometimes produces surprising results. New political parties pop up and disappear with regularity. Minority governments are commonplace.
This hour-long program will focus on the development of Canada’s political history, some of the nation’s unusual elections outcomes and the federal election that’s expected in the spring.
Greg also promised to address President Donald Trump’s suggestion that Canada become the “51st state.”
Greg retired from The Post-Star in 2023. He graduated from SUNY Plattsburgh with a degree in political science, having spent his final semester as a visiting student at McGill University in Montreal. He has traveled extensively across Canada.
His father, Joseph Brownell, was a longtime professor of geography at SUNY Cortland and specialized in Canadian geography. The elder Brownell taught summer sessions at the University of Alberta and the University of Winnipeg during the 1950s and 1960s.
Chapman unveiling
It's a little later than we hoped but the Chapman Museum and the Upstate Model Railroaders will be unveiling a 1900 turn-of-the-century diorama of downtown Glens Falls complete with a working trolley line on Thursday, March 20.
The idea for the diorama was spawned off the Chapman's Christmas decorating initiative last year and was suggested by Ken Wheeler and Forest Bevins with the model railroaders club using 3D digital printing technology.
The original plan was to have it in time for our Christmas decorating, but the execution was more complicated than anticipated, but it was worth the wait.
"We are thrilled about the installation of the much-anticipated model of the historic Glens Falls trolley." Chapman Executive Director Nicole Herwig said. "We are so thankful for the generous support of community members and the exceptional craftsmanship of the Upstate Model Railroaders. We are grateful for their dedication in bringing this piece of local history to life at the Chapman."
What has been so gratifying for me personally is that so many people embraced this project from the beginning from Nicole Herwig and her staff at the Chapman to all the model railroaders who lent their knowledge and expertise. And when we asked for donations to fund the materials for the project, regular readers of this column stepped up, including the Sandy Hill Foundation.
The diorama shows the west side of downtown Glens Falls circa 1890-1900 and includes detailed depictions of the buildings as they were then. It extends from the Rockwell House Hotel (where Hudson Avenue is now) all the way up Glen Street to the Civil War monument. The detail is extraordinary and includes the actual writing that is on the Civil War monument.
Donors, Chapman members and contributors to the project are invited to attend a wine and cheese gathering at the Chapman Museum on Thursday, March 20 at 6 p.m. Limited space for members of the public is available but requires a reservation. Please call the Museum at (518)793-2826 to reserve a spot for the unveiling.
Glens Falls protests
It's winter and it's cold, but 37 people were still hot enough under the collar to sign up for INDIVISIBLE's "Where is Elise?" rally in City Park in Glens Falls.
The fact 37 signed up is extraordinary and shows the level of anger in the community, but what is even more impressive is that approximately 70 turned up with signs and questions to ask Elise Stefanik who was too busy making a speech in Maryland to pay attention to local constituents.
After dozens of questions were asked, including questions submitted ahead of the event by frustrated locals, the crowd proceeded to walk the block around the library, chanting things like:
“What do we want?”
"REPRESENTATION!"
“When do we want it?”
"NOW!"
Many carried signs expressing concerns over issues such as the illegal firing of federal workers or illustrating the absence of Rep. Stefanik with her image on milk cartons like another missing child.
Ken Tingley spent more than four decades working in small community newspapers in upstate New York. Since retirement in 2020 he has written three books and is currently adapting his second book "The Last American Newspaper" into a play. He currently lives in Queensbury, N.Y.
A sweet column - thanks.
There are six or more Ukrainian families in the Glens Falls/Queensbury area. Three or four of them have been brought here under the sponsorship of local residents through the Uniting for Ukraine (U4U) humanitarian parole program. Sponsorship entailed providing resources for them when they arrived - housing, transportation, English lessons, orientation to our community, etc - just as Susan and Roman did for Liza. That has been fun, because these folks are wonderful people. And in all cases it wasn't long before they were up on their own feet.
In the past, folks in this U4U program had options to stay beyond their prescribed two year parole. President Trump has terminated that option and is rumored to be considering sending them back to Ukraine before their 2 years is up.
These folks are working, are paying taxes, are helping to support our local economy. They are also contributing to our culture, making us aware of the richness of theirs. They all make fantastic borscht.
Send them back to Ukraine? Why? Don't we want to grow a richer, more interesting community?
Thanks, Ken, for sharing this beautiful, heart warming, eye opening story. I can’t believe in a god who is some kind of celestial puppeteer pulling strings from above. But there are some things that happen which seem more than just fate. They feel beyond mere coincidence. In our family we call them “divine co-inky-dinks”—mysterious, beyond explanation, but awakening and sometimes life changing.
My learning from the Front Page this morning is that more important than the cost of eggs is the price of life. Let’s get our priorities straight!