Trying to picture the manager of the Shevchenko Homeland State Preserve, one is likely to end visualizing a dignified academic-type lady wearing thick glasses, or maybe an overconfident bureaucrat, one of those “cultural workers.” Wrong! This preserve, revered by all Ukrainians conscious of their national identity, is run by Liudmyla Shevchenko, a young, charming, soft-spoken woman, brimming with energy, fully aware of what it really means to be in charge a place where Taras had once walked and first seen the stars at night.
Liudmyla visited The Day, bringing a totally unexpected but all the more so welcome present, a basketful of apples from the orchards of Kerelivka, Shevchenko’s native village. The trees had been grafted using a good old method that may have been practiced by Shevchenko’s fellow villagers. The apples smelled so sweet one felt as though biting into any would be an act of sacrilege. The Day’s Chief Editor Larysa Ivshyna presented Liudmyla and the libraries of Kerelivka and Moryntsi with a number of copies of The Day’s latest historical edition Ukrayina Incognita (featuring two articles dedicated to Shevchenko).
Followed a serious, “optimistically sad” (Ms. Shevchenko admitted she was an “optimistic realist”) discussion about the world’s only Taras Shevchenko sanctuary. What is the current status of the preserve? What are its needs? What keeps Liudmyla Shevchenko and her colleagues inspired? How is the state handling the problems of Shevchenko’s land? What is Liudmyla’s cherished dream? (This amazing woman said: “The last thing I’d want is complain...”) More on this in The Day’s next issue.
