Letter to the Editor

As the war rages in Ukraine, I think of him more frequently. It’s impossible not to. I knew him and his Ukrainian family and considered them examples of everything that’s good about America. His name was Arky Zhovkily. He was introduced to me and many others in Norfolk by Anita Mathewson and her daughter Jill Vantine, who had hired Arky to help build her house. The word got out about this extremely skilled, industrious craftsman and before long he was in great demand in our little village. There wasn’t anything he couldn’t do. It was remarkable how hard he worked and what a perfectionist he was.

It was 2018 and one of his many projects, which would be his last, was building a stone wall that separates the Norfolk library land from the south side of our house. Arky moved boulders with his Bobcat tractor like they were pebbles, and soon the wall started to take shape. One day this gentle giant of a man didn’t show up to work. It was most unusual, but I thought maybe I misunderstood his heavy Ukrainian accent. My thoughts of uneasiness turned into disbelief when I learned the news. Arky had suffered a brain aneurysm and was on life support. His extended family gathered from all over, including Ukraine, and prayed at the hospital. But there was no hope. Arky died at the age of 47, leaving his pregnant wife and three children. Baby Arky was born seven months later.

Arky’s brother Tony, who lives in Ukraine, stayed to help Arky’s wife, Irina. Soon after, at Arky’s funeral, Tony approached us about finishing the library wall before his return to Ukraine. He and Irina felt it was important to show Arky’s loyalty to Norfolk and the many people he had known here. Both Ann Havemeyer at the library and I were overwhelmed by this act of kindness. This taught me so much about the Ukrainian people. As I see the sacrifices all Ukrainians are making today, the loyalty they exhibit and their love of family and country, I am not surprised. Arky was that kind of Ukrainian. And that kind of American.

Doreen Kelly