Since beginning my journey of researching and writing THEY WHO SURROUND US, I continue to be amazed by the miraculous people, situations and events that have come my way. I will share them at some point in the future. Perhaps with the help of one of these new friends ... Sandra Coley :) ... but one of them I have to share this morning from a little rustic cottage in a tiny village in the Carpathian mountains. A couple of days ago.... with the help of some other incredible new friends, my sister, Deserrie Ruptash and I were connected with a priest in the village of Zhuravne, Ukraine. (The village where my maternal grandmother grew up) We have known for quite some time that we have no living relatives in Ukraine. One of the two images that started me on this journey was of my grandmother's brother, my great uncle, Stefan Boyson. Our understanding was that he was killed when he was sent to Siberia. A couple of months ago we uncovered more of the story through some correspondence we had translated. Stefan got out of Siberia and ended up fighting for Ukraine's freedom with the Ukrainian Insurgent army in the Carpathian mountains. When we were in Zhuravne on Saturday, we sat with the priest, going through old church records. We were told that we would be visited soon by someone who might have some more information for us. We went back to going over the records with the priest. Then, a couple of people came to the house. One of them was a woman who entered the room with such incredible force. She set down a bag and proclaimed, 'ми сім'я, і я маю фотографії для вас' (We are family and I have photographs for you). We then learned that not only did Stefan Boyson make it out of Siberia, he had also married and had a daughter.... and she was now standing in front of us. Her father, our great uncle had married a woman named Maria. Stefan died in the woods and Maria was executed in Siberia, but their daughter, a little girl named Olja managed to secretly jump off of the train headed to Siberia and survive. She was raised by someone that found her and she still lives in Zhuravne, the village where my grandmother grew up. I believe in #miracles #family #ukraine #filmmaking (at Zhuravno, Ivano-Frankivs'Ka Oblast', Ukraine) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bq8zvvlA3Fl/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=ep0rjchq86fz