Amsterdam, Paris, Warsaw, Budapest, Prague, London, Madrid, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Berlin, the remotest parts of the US, Canada, Australia. Ukrainians in this country and throughout the world, including the President, the Chairman of Verkhovna Rada, the Minister of Defense, Ukrainian diplomatic missions in a number of countries, the Ukrainian Mission at the UN, public and state-run organizations, and ordinary people, all responded with grief and shock to the sudden death of James Mace. I know that people who knew my husband and loved him received the tragic news especially painfully. Holodomor eyewitness sent heartfelt telegrams to Kyiv Mayor Oleksandr Omelchenko, requesting that Jim be buried at Baikove Cemetery. It was the least they could do for him.
These lines are filled with pain. I am grateful to all the people who responded to Jim’s death and are trying to support me in my grief. I will not even try to name them; there are thousands, along with millions that were numb with shock upon hearing of the irreparable loss. I am deeply moved and imbued with hope, knowing that this immense outpouring of grief was caused by the passing of a private person, not a politician or renowned leader, but an individual who had earned no government or civic awards, but one who had simply worked honestly and selflessly in the name of Ukraine and for its benefit, a person who had actually become a citizen of the world-a world of peace, understanding, and mutual respect-among the different peoples that he cherished in his dreams and in whose creation he believed. Basques, Armenians, Poles, Americans, and Iraqis all considered him their champion. James was a humanist and simply a kindhearted and open individual. I cannot share my pain with anyone; it is my cross to bear. I know that he will continue to struggle for his cause and be happy as long as he remains alive in people’s hearts.
I would like to express special gratitude to Larysa Ivshyna, Editor-in-Chief of The Day, and all the staff who shouldered the burden of making the funeral arrangements. In my state of helpless despair their assistance was invaluable. Thank you all, my dear ones, for your support, attention, and help! Also special thanks to the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy National University that James so loved and in whose graduates he profoundly believed, regarding these incorruptibly decent personalities the true future of this land.
Emerging from all those letters, telegrams, and phone calls was a James Mace about whom I knew nothing. The totality of these views, impressions, demonstrations of affection, and responses to his journalistic, research, and public endeavors are a great legacy that must be accessible to all people of good will. Perhaps the most important lesson that James taught is that man, contrary to circumstances and tragic events, can reach the greatest summits of the spirit. Jim was a man lit up by the sun and this is the way we shall remember him.
