Since the founding of Postcards to the Front, we’ve reached out several times to the Postcrossing community to invite members to write postcard messages of support to Ukraine’s Defenders. After all, that’s what Postcrossers do: send lovely postcards to random individuals all over the planet, forming connections, learning about each other.
From the Philadelphia area in the United States, Nancy is another Postcrosser who decided to write some postcards to Ukraine’s Defenders, sending a number of batches to both Canada branch and home branch in Ukraine. She has tapped into what she calls our tips page on the Postcards to the Front website and the Ukrainian Phrases page.
About writing in Ukrainian, she explained, “I just cobbled together several of those [phrases] and wrote small variations on each card. I knew it wasn’t about how brilliant or creative I could sound. It was about the individual soldier, making him/her feel that they mattered and that the world appreciated their sacrifice. And it was a fun challenge to write them in the Cyrillic alphabet!”
Nancy’s motivation for sending postcards to Ukraine’s Defenders begins with her view that “not only is it a terrible wrong for one nation to invade/kidnap/bomb another country without provocation; Russian ambitions threaten many other nations as well. Ukraine is absorbing Russia’s colonizing ambitions for now. If they fall, anywhere in Eastern Europe or the Middle East may be next.”
She compassionately adds that “resisting Russia depends on the people doing the resisting. War is a grueling, frustrating, terrifying experience, and these people have given up being at home with their loved ones to do it. So, if we can offer them something – hope, acknowledgement of that sacrifice – hopefully that helps keep them doing their absolute best with this very tough job in front of them.”
There’s more to Nancy’s motivation. As she explains it, her cards are making a unique journey that spans across time, place, and several generations. It’s a complicated journey, reminding us that the past often collides with the present. Sometimes, in terrible ways. Other times, we learn from it; maybe, even can heal.
As Nancy explains –
Both my grandmothers were from Ukraine. Both my grandfathers were from Russia. But none of them were considered Ukrainian or Russian even though their families had lived there for hundreds of years. They were Jewish by religion and neither of those countries gave them the respect nor consideration offered to Christians.
My grandparents fled those regions where they experienced heavy discrimination and state-sanctioned violence (assaults, rape, murder of family members) for the crime of being Jewish. And when I say they fled, these were perilous journeys, requiring tactics such as hiding underneath haystacks and enduring getting stabbed with pitchforks to get past the border guards, having to pay bribes to officials, being thrown off trains because they were Jewish. They weren’t wanted, but they also weren’t supposed to escape. Sadly, our relatives who stayed because the journey seemed too perilous, were murdered under the Nazis – not by the Germans, but by eager Ukrainian collaborators.
And so, when Russia invaded Ukraine back in 2014, I wasn’t too concerned. I could hear my grandfather’s voice in my head saying, “Let the gonifs (thieves) kill each other off!”
But with the invasion of 2022, I began to feel differently. By then Ukraine had elected a Jew to be their President, and they seemed to love and respect him. That was a sign of a better society, right? And it was clear that Putin was emboldened when there was little international resistance to his first invasion. The domino theory was discounted long ago, but it seemed valid here – if we didn’t stop Putin, he was going to keep taking bites out of countries who’d escaped from the Soviet Union. Bullies keep bullying until someone stands up to them. That’s what happened with Hitler, and by the time the Allies pulled together to fight him off, it was ever so much harder to contain him. So, I changed my mind. I became an advocate for Ukraine. I would reach out to help those grandchildren of the gonifs. Apologies to my grandparents, but … the world has changed in the decades since you passed away.
Now, every time I write a note in sympathy to Ukraine, a little something heals inside me – some bit of old anger, fear or resentment. I am more at peace with how I regard Ukraine and Ukrainians, and Postcards to the Front has played a part.
Let warfare also be a time for healing, when and where it can. I thank you, my friends, for that.
This project is about love and hope. When we reach out to others – to strangers far, far away – with compassion and care, across continents and across time and through the generations, we can nourish a healing process.
It’s Nancy’s hope that her cards will help Defenders “feel noticed and acknowledged. Like, ‘Gosh, somebody in America heard about me and thinks I’m a hero??!?’ and the next day it is a bit easier to crawl out of their sleeping bag, reload their weapon, and risk their life again.
Like most people we meet through this project, Nancy has found other ways to support Ukraine. For instance, she donates money that is targeted directly to Ukraine through the Ukrainian Red Cross for shelters and medical care, and to World Central Kitchen to help feed people in need in Ukraine.
She also encourages others to send postcard messages of support to Ukraine’s Defenders. After all, Ukraine’s Defenders could really use our support and encouragement after a hard day at the front lines. Defending their homes and freedom for three years since the full-scale invasion.
Need cards? Write to us at postcardstothefront.canada@gmail.com, and we’ll send you postcards to write to Defenders. FREE!
If you have some written cards ready for us to ship to Ukraine, here’s our address:
Postcards to the Front
P. O. Box 184
Millbrook, ON L0A 1G0
Canada
Share our website – postcardstothefrontcanada.com
Postcards to the Front (Canada / Канада) 
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