The dead will eventually outnumber the living on Facebook. This is likely to happen in the next 50 years or so. I already see Facebook profiles of more than a dozen my friends transformed into memorial pages. That number grew in a period of just four weeks. Two genuinely wonderful people – Marta Kolomayets and Lydia Matiaszek, passed away here in Kyiv. Both were Ukrainian Americans who moved to Ukraine three decades ago and both stayed in Ukraine to the very end.
Marta Kolomayets died on Aug. 16; Lydia Matiaszek, on Sept. 17. They were close friends. Each life tells a beautiful story that will inspire Ukrainians both here in Ukraine and North America, for generations to come. Communities in Kyiv and across the Atlantic are mourning this loss.
Marta and Lydia have laid the foundations of the Ukrainian diaspora coming back to Ukraine and staying. They were the trailblazers, the catalysts of Ukrainian diaspora born in the West to move to Kyiv.
Marta, a Chicago-born Ukrainian, came to Ukraine in 1991, just months before Ukraine proclaimed its independence. An American journalist in Kyiv was a rare sight in those days. Marta regularly wrote for the Ukrainian Weekly, a U.S.-based English language diaspora-founded newspaper. From 1991 she witnessed history being made in Ukraine. She married Danylo Yanevsky, a writer and journalist, the first Ukrainian host of the TV game show Who Wants to a Millionaire.
Lydia came from New York to Ukraine also in the early 1990s, where she settled with her husband, Petro, and their beautiful daughter Ksenia. Lydia was loved by so many in the community here in Kyiv. Many are shocked by the passing of such a wonderful person ahead of time. She had a passion for all things Ukrainian, none more than her beloved Bandura, a 56-string Ukrainian plucked string folk instrument that she played with panache and adoration.
Both girls were born in the Free World, both born at a time when their homeland was under Soviet rule. Ukrainian independence was a dream that both Marta and Lydia grew up with throughout childhood. It was then only a dream. That dream and passion for Ukraine lived in their hearts forever.
Both were ardent supporters of the Ukrainian Catholic University active members of the university’s fundraising committee.
Facebook was not around in 1991. We only have photos printed on Kodak from those days to illustrate the memories. In, Lydia’s and Marta’s photos from Ukraine on Facebook, they are always smiling. They were happy to be home. Now the two angels are in heaven.
They were among the very first Ukrainian diaspora that returned to the homeland for good. Their story is an inspiration for Ukrainians worldwide to follow the path that Marta and Lydia have laid. We will miss you. But we know that both of you will from above watch over and continue your blessed work as angels.
