Do you read more in summer? Here are some thought provoking books I’ve recently read – all by Canadian authors! My selection is a mix of fiction, biography, and travel writing.

Protecting The Prairies – Lorne Scott and the Politics of Conservation: by Andrea Olive - 2023, University of Regina Press
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I first met Lorne Scott in the year 2000 when he was NDP Minister of Environment, Saskatchewan, and I was the Manager of the Saskatchewan Native Prairie Conservation Action Plan. My husband had the pleasure of banding owls with Lorne when he was a child, since both are from Indian Head, Saskatchewan.

I must admit, I’d been hesitant about reading another book about conservation written by an academic, since I’ve spent most of my life working in conservation. However, I found the book both easy and enjoyable to read.

Olive’s research spanned a number of years and she cast a wide net for information sources about the impacts of Saskatchewan politics/policy, and about Lorne himself. Olive even conducted personal interviews with Grant Devine and Roy Romanow, both past Saskatchewan Premiers.

In Protecting The Prairies, Olive captured Lorne’s essential nature: that of an astute, polite, and deeply caring man. I’ve observed first-hand how well Lorne remembers people’s names - even though he knows so many people. I’ve also noticed that he makes sure to spend time with entry level conservation aspirants. Many people comment how well Lorne can “work a room” at meetings, and in the book, Lorne admits that he’s always loved attending meetings! A true mark of an effective conservationist?

I thought it was fitting that Grant Devine’s Conservative political missteps actually worked to create some of the strongest conservation laws in Canada, both provincially and federally, and due in no small part to Lorne’s unceasing efforts to conserve natural areas.

Olive wrote that her goal was to write a story about how an individual farmer has worked to conserve nature in an increasingly industrialized agriculture landscape.  Oliver includes an incredibly long list of the conservation awards Lorne has received during his lifetime.

Olive’s book provides an excellent chronology of the political events that have caused Canadian native grasslands to become one of the most endangered ecosystems on earth. Their loss is also the primary reason why grassland songbird populations have declined so much.

I am sure that the Andrea Olive will use her book in the environmental policy classes she teaches at the University of Toronto, and I am hopeful that other universities and teachers will become aware of its value as a conservation teaching tool as well.
 
The Prison Book Club: by Ann Walmsley – 2015, Viking Books

Ann Walmsley’s memoir intrigued me, since many years ago I’d taken a multi-day workshop with a federal prison guard. The comments he made about his work caught my interest.

Before her adventure with Ontario prisoners, Walmsley had been mugged while living with her family in England. The experience left her traumatized. Her friend, Carol Finlay, invited her to help with her dream – Carol wanted to set up book clubs in Ontario prisons. She believed that inmates would benefit by reading and discussing carefully selected books.

The Prison Book Club was easy to read, Walmsley is an accomplished writer. I was captivated by how she wrote about prisoners’ perceptions of many popular books, whose titles I often recognized. Book club members read both new and classic titles, all carefully selected by Carol Finlay and her team.

Finlay, with the help of Walmsley and others, was able to create book clubs in most Ontario prisons in a few short years.

Walmsley tells us that recent research shows that reading fiction helps prisoners develop compassion and empathy by reading about compelling fictional characters.

Did Walmsley’s experience help her to deal with her own trauma? Yes, I believe it did, since she agreed to meet privately with many book club members after their incarceration ended.

“The books changed the men, and the men changed Walmsley.”
 
Trail Mix: 920 km on the Camino de Santiago: by Jules Torti - 2021, Rocky Mountain Books

I love reading travel memoirs written by modern pilgrims who’ve walked Spain’s Camino de Santiago, since I also walked the Camino Frances in 2005. Just a few short months ago, my husband and I once again became pilgrims, walking both the Camino Portuguese and the Finisterre-Muxia Camino.

Trail Mix is one of the more recent memoirs in my camino collection, and this week, I read Torti’s book for a second time. She gives a day-by-day account of her walk with her partner, her information being both authentic and realistic. Torti tells us stories about snorers and dorm life, the constant threat of blisters, long days spent walking between Spanish villages, the plethora of baguettes and salami eaten, and the constant lack of privacy while staying in albergues.

Torti reminds us that it’s essential to have a good partner if you’re walking a camino – otherwise you’re better off on your own. I agree with her. I like the way she ended her book  - you’ll have to read it yourself to find out what happened!

Lastly, Trail Mix is a wonderful source of information for anyone contemplating their own camino. Highly recommended!
 
The Economy of Sparrows: by Trevor Herriot - 2023, Thistledown Press

In his latest book – his first work of fiction - Herriot explores bird conservation history and current habitat conservation issues.  Economy of Sparrows takes place in Indian Head and Deep Lake Saskatchewan, areas that I am familiar with. I found his characters engaging and the story arc interesting.

As the story in The Economy of Sparrows unfolds, we learn about bird collector history in both Canada and the Indian Head area, and about the natural history of grassland songbirds. At the beginning of each chapter, a bird species is featured, along with its perceived impact on agriculture. I noted that many grassland birds depend on cultivated crop field margins for the weed seeds they contain. From my own work in native grassland conservation, I also know that well-managed livestock grazing supports a wide diversity of grassland bird species. 

Herriot’s main character, Nell, considers her life and love of birds in the context of loss of the small family farm, bison extermination, smallpox, and the ongoing destruction of native grassland habitat in view of Canada’s move towards expansive corporate/industrial agriculture. Nell experiences personal change and gains closure on key questions she’s been struggling with as the story evolves. I found that I could relate to Nell.

I had to chuckle at times, Herriot did an exceptional job of capturing the essence of prairie life and attitudes through his characters’ dialogue. Stereotypical perspectives of both conservationists and farmers - conversations I’ve often heard myself – were bang on. No rock was left unturned, scenes illustrating urban and rural culture clashes rang true.

I believe Harriot was successful in relating bird and grassland conservation issues through use of fictional characters in The Economy of Sparrows. We have an urgent need for diverse vehicles of messaging about the importance of nature in agricultural landscapes. Indeed, during a recent road trip across our three prairie provinces, I was shocked by the increased size of crop fields, the apparent heavy use of herbicides (ie. many now-large fields appeared absolutely weedless – how could that be?), the loss of aspen clones, and unceasing drainage of wetlands.  The diverse species formerly found on native prairie grasslands and smaller cropped field edges, so important for grassland birds, are now absent on much of the agriculture landscapes of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.

Where nature goes, we will go?

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Right now, you’re on my very own author website. While here, you can peruse my historical fiction novel “Heart Stones – A Ukrainian Immigration Story of Love and Hope,” published in 2023. My story is based on my family’s difficult and prolonged immigration experience during and after WWI.  Check out Heart Stones reviews, my blog page, and other information about my book.  You can even download chapter one for free!
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My website is:
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www.christinenykoluk.com
 
Follow me on Facebook at:

www.facebook.com/christinenykolukauthor/

Photo of the Nykoluk family during the 1930's. Mary, Anne, Wasyl, John, and Violet Nykoluk with family friend Kost Solovey.

What intrigues you most about your ancestors’ immigration to Canada?

What was my grandparents’ daily life like in Melnytsya Podilska, near the Dniester River? What were the political and social events that spurred them to leave their country in 1914?

My efforts to answer my questions led me to explore first person accounts of Ukrainian and other immigrants to Canada.

Recorded first-person accounts make an important contribution to history, and one of the tenets of expectation is that their accounts remain relatively unmodified by external writer’s agendas. I like to think of these first-person accounts as a type of “citizens’ research.”

Unfortunately, family stories don’t last forever, and so anyone who takes the time to record first-person accounts is making a critical contribution towards our understanding of our own individual and collective past.

Many of our immigrant ancestors experienced similar things.

Many years ago, and again more recently, I read All of Baba’s Children, by Myrna Kostash (1977). Her book is a work of non-fiction, for which she interviewed a community of Ukrainian-Canadians east of Edmonton, Alberta in the 1970’s. The basis of her book was first-person accounts. Her book is now considered a Canadian classic and includes chapters on 16 different topics relevant to immigrating Ukrainians including why they left their ancestral villages, impacts of WWI and WW2, politics, assimilation within Canada, and racism. 

​My online search into my own ancestry began around 2015 with a quest to find my grandparents’ names on trans-Atlantic passenger ships in 1914. I eventually found my grandfather’s name, Wasyl Nykoluk, on The Ships List website. Along with passenger lists, The Ships List also provides valuable first-person travel accounts from early European immigrants: https://www.theshipslist.com/accounts/index.shtml

The beautiful book by Michael Mucz entitled Baba’s Kitchen Medicines: Folk Remedies of Ukrainian Settlers in Western Canada contains comprehensive research of Ukrainian anthropology, history, and ethnobotany using first person accounts of first Ukrainians and their descendants to Canada. Most early immigrant Ukrainians did not have access to, nor the money to pay doctors. This was also true when they still lived in their ancestral villages. Women typically held healing knowledge within each family. Nearby First Nations were also a source of knowledge about medicinal plants and how they could be used to treat health problems. Mucz’s collection of first-person accounts also includes ample information about daily life in Ukrainian ancestral villages.

I grew up on a farm near the community of Riding Mountain, Manitoba. However, railway work also figured prominently in my family’s history. Long before they were able to buy their farm, my grandfather worked for the CNR near Sioux Lookout, Ontario. My grandmother finally joined him there in 1923. Thus, my grandfather wasn’t only familiar with the Canadian prairies, he also experienced the vast Ontario forests, rivers, and lakes shortly after leaving his ancestral village. He would have experienced the boom-and-bust nature, and often dangerous conditions, of immigrant railway work.  The Virtual Museum, Taras Shevchenko Museum Community Stories was key in building my understanding of the role of early Ukrainians working on Canadian railroads. The link for this important and sizeable collection is: https://www.communitystories.ca/v1/pm_v2.php?id=story_line_index&fl=0&lg=English&ex=00000464&pos=1

Sandra Semchuk’s 2019 book The Stories Were Not Told: Canada’s First World War Internment Camps provides accounts by direct descendants of Ukrainian Internees – Canada’s first internees.  Many Canadians do not know that there were numerous internment camps all across Canada during WWI, since government records were destroyed in the 1950’s. Many Ukrainians lost property, and some even lost their lives as a result of these unfortunate government policies. Semchuk’s book plays an important role in capturing the truths of this key time in history.

Good general background history can be gleaned from Orest Martynowych’s 1991 book Ukrainians in Canada – the Formative Period: 1891-1924.

My Ukrainian grandparents’ prolonged and difficult immigration inspired the writing of my recently released book Heart Stones: A Ukrainian Immigration Story of Love and Hope. Nykoluk family stories were included in addition to use of the above-mentioned first-person accounts as inspiration for many of my book's scenes.

So many important events occurred during the years 1914 to 1923, in both Canada and Galician villages. In my historical fiction novel, I include scenes about the impacts of the beginning and end of WWI on my grandparents, my grandmother’s long wait to be reunited with my grandfather, Canadian Internment Camps during WWI, the Spanish Flu, Winnipeg General Strike and worker unrest, and discrimination against newcomers to Canada. The important role of the Ukrainian Red Cross in Winnipeg in reunifying Ukrainian families after WWI is also included.

Even though it is a work of historical fiction, many readers of Heart Stones comment that my story reads more like non-fiction. It is my belief that this is because I made extensive use of first-person accounts for creating both scenes and dialogue. The collection of first-person accounts that I wrote about in this blog post are but a few of the key research resources I used for composing my manuscript.

Visit my website for more details about Heart Stones, read Reviews, and check out my Bookstore page, listen to recent CBC radio interviews, read about my offerings for book clubs, and check out my other blog posts. While here on my website, you can download Chapter One from my book, it’s absolutely free!
​
www.christinenykoluk.com

Follow my author journey and read about other books on my Facebook account:
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https://www.facebook.com/christinenykolukauthor/
​
 
 
 

My note: Thank You to the Canmore Library for featuring me for the month of February, I've copied and pasted the interview here for your reading convenience.

Did you know that there are over 100 authors who call Canmore their home? We are so excited to shine the spotlight on local authors for our newsletter subscribers! 
 
We are thrilled to introduce Christine Nykoluk as our local author spotlight this month! She has written for both work and pleasure for over 30 years, writing in a variety of styles. In early 2023, she published her first historical fiction novel Heart Stones – A Ukrainian Immigration Story of Love and Hope. You can read reviews of her book and check out her Blog Page at www.christinenykoluk.com.
 
Read our interview with Christine below!
 
What led you to start writing?  
I worked as a field-based Rangeland Management Specialist for the federal government for 23 years and there was a need for writing in my work group. I viewed this as a great opportunity. I wrote rangeland management reports using field data I’d collected, newsletters for our clients (ie. translating science into “everyday language”), and near the end of my career, I designed and taught range management related courses. I was also a “ghost writer” for other land managers so that their innovative vegetation management techniques could be shared with a wider audience. A professional communications group assisted me in all this.
 
After I retired in 2012, I started researching my paternal grandparents’ immigration and I realized that their story was unique – they were separated for nine years during and after WWI. I’d earlier thought that writing a novel would be a good lifetime accomplishment but I knew that only a compelling story would enable me to see it through.  I explored my grandparents’ experience through historical fiction written with abundant dialogue – thus Heart Stones: A Ukrainian Immigration Story of Love and Hope was published in early 2023.
 
What advice would you give to any committed writer? 
Write from a subject matter expertise if you can (when you are beginning), most workplaces need good writers, and it usually pays better than publishing a novel! Your time spent writing may even be pensionable. It’s a way to practise your craft and helps you cultivate an audience for your work.
 
Write every day if possible, it keeps your characters and subject matter alive. Be sure to read Stephen King’s book “On Writing”, it is the best book I’ve read on how to write a novel. Join a writing group so that you can have your work critiqued. This is very important.
 
Engage your audience by including an emotional element in your story, it helps keep readers interested.
 
How do you get your creativity flowing?
I simply make an effort to begin and then my creativity follows.  I firmly believe that the most important step is simply getting words onto the page. Just write without evaluating, there’s plenty of time for editing later. Editing is a different process than creating. I typically try to write for an hour, but it often turns out that I write for longer.
 
I read books in a variety of genres and I try to be open to anything that I see or hear during my day – anything is fodder for my next scene.  I pay attention to how people talk and act and I try to identify a person who exemplifies the character I am trying to create and then I “copy” them.
 
Give a shout-out to a fellow author.
I’d like to mention three of my favorite Canadian writers: 

Harley Rustad – I enjoyed his book Lost in the Valley of Death and I love listening to him speak about writing.
 
Louise Penny – I’ve read all of her books, I enjoy the way she constructs her characters and mysteries.
 
Richard Wagamese – his book Embers made a big impression on me.
 
What aspect of writing have you most improved in over time? What resources helped you most in this area?
I decided to learn how to write dialogue for fiction. I paid close attention to how authors I admired wrote dialogue, and I asked my writing group for feedback, to make sure that my dialogue sounded natural. Nikki Tate and her online Writers on Fire group helped me so much. I couldn’t have completed my novel without them!
 
Using the voice function in Word also helped me to edit dialogue. Hearing is different than reading it.

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Place a hold on Christine's book Heart Stones today! You can order it through interlibrary loan at libraries in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. Be sure to search her website for where you can buy her book, download a free copy of Chapter One, plus ideas for Book Clubs. 

I have a confession to make.

I love good food, but hate fussing in the kitchen. In my mind, food preparation needs to be simple.

I’m very attached to my slow cooker. The delicious smell of a ready dinner when we arrived home after work was always enticing.

My mother is an excellent cook. When I was growing up on the farm, our stove had a tendency to burn things. To this day, I love cabbage rolls that are slightly singed. My slow cooker suits me just fine in this regard, since one side of my slow cooker often yields slightly singed food.

Here’s my recipe for lazy cabbage rolls that taste almost like my Mom’s. They’re a favorite potluck dish too.

You can assemble all of the following ingredients directly in your slow cooker; just make sure to mix everything thoroughly:

Lazy Cabbage Rolls
1 cup of rice (we use Basmati)
1 large can (680ml) of Hunt’s tomato sauce, or similar
1 bag of shredded coleslaw, 400 g size  (or ½ head of shredded red or green cabbage)
2 tsp Montreal Steak Spice
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 medium-sized onion, diced
1 pound of good quality sausage, diced.
Optional: ¼ cup of wild rice

Slow cook on High setting for 4 hours.

Note: These Lazy Cabbage Rolls are gluten free. Of course, you can make this recipe vegetarian by omitting the sausage. 

Please don’t tell your Baba.

If you enjoy my blog – it’s full of historical references and Ukrainian lore – you might like to read my recently published book Heart Stones – A Ukrainian Immigration Story of Love and Hope. I’ve written my family story as historical fiction and the novel is about my grandparents’ nine-year separation during and after WWI. You can download a free copy of Chapter One while you’re here.

Look elsewhere on my website  www.christinenykoluk.com to read Heart Stones book reviews.

Photo courtesy Pixabay.com

What superstitions did your grandparents have?

A few months ago, I posed this question to an Ukrainian online group that I belong to. I got almost 400 responses! I organized and grouped the superstitions, the most commonly mentioned ones are listed first in this blog post.

Do some of these sound familiar to you?
 
If you give someone a wallet, make sure there’s money in it, even just a penny. Otherwise the wallet may remain empty for the new owner.

If you enter a house or a room, you must leave by the same door, otherwise your soul will get trapped.
 
If you whistle in the house, you’re calling the devil.
 
If you drop a knife, company is coming (a man), but if you drop a spoon, a woman will visit.  Or if you drop a knife, fighting will come, if you drop a fork, a man will visit, a spoon – a woman will visit.
 
Never put shoes on the table, or you will have unwanted guests.
 
Never step over someone, it will stunt their growth.
 
During a thunder storm, light candles and pray for safety. Cover all of the mirrors and spread holy water in all the corners.
 
A healthy young dark-haired male visitor (ie. at least teenaged) on New Year’s Day will bring good luck for the whole year.  This visit will also help to avoid bad luck. If no young dark-haired male visitor arrives on that day,  someone will become deathly sick.
 
Death will come if a bird gets in the house, or if you bring lilies into the house.
 
If you give someone a gift of knives, be sure to include at least a penny so that the receiver can “buy” the knives from you. Otherwise the friendship will be severed.
 
Baba Yaga is a bad witch, used to scare children away from places they shouldn't be in.
 
Visitors may sprinkle wheat on your floor to bring good luck and a good harvest.

Birds are spirits of loved ones coming to visit you or to check on you.
 
Never sing at the dinner table or else you will have a crazy husband.
 
If you lose something in your house, place a cup upside down on your table. You will find the object within 24 hours.
 
Never eat the heel of bread, or else your husband will end up bald!
 
To rid yourself of bad luck, spit over your left shoulder three times.
 
Never leave your hat on the table, it brings bad luck.
 
Spiders in the home bring good luck.
 
Place a setting on your dinner table for departed ancestors on  Christmas Eve so they can join you. Feed the animals first thing in the day with some kutia. They will then talk about you to the spirit world, saying good things.
 
Never cut your hair outside. You will get a headache if you let birds use your lost hair strands for their nests. The hair should be burned in the stove to avoid bad spirits – not thrown outside.
 
The devil will come if you hear your name when no one is there, also if you use your left hand to eat, or if you whistle in the house.
 
If you have a dream with snow in it, you will get a letter from far away. Dreaming about trees being cut down means a death.
 
When the star is above the smile moon, war is coming.
 
A bird hitting your window means that someone in the family has died.  
Don’t keep your purse on the floor or you’ll go broke.
 
Don’t return home if you forgot something there. It will bring bad luck.
 
Never jump over a rope.
 
Avoid people with empty buckets crossing your path.
 
Don’t wash or sweep a floor while someone has left your home and is still travelling. Wait until you know they’ve arrived at their destination safely.

Never hang clothes outside after dark.
 
Never keep broken dishes in the house.
 
Never leave your keys on the table.
 
If you compliment a newborn, you must kiss it on the head three times to avoid evil spirits.
 
If an unmarried girl sweeps the floor after supper/dark, she will never marry. A girl sitting at the corner of a table will never get married. Never sweep around an unmarried girl.
 
If you spill salt, pick it up with your right hand and throw it over your left shoulder.
 
Never hug or kiss in a doorway.
 
Never go outside with wet hair or you’ll get a cold.
 
You’ll have money coming if you dream of poop, or if a bird poops on your car. If you dream of a bright light, something good is coming.

Wear your underwear inside out to prevent curses.

If your right palm of hand itches, you’re going to meet someone new. If your left palm itches, money is coming your way.
 
Sit down on your suitcase before you travel, it will bring good luck.
 
Women should never sit on stone or else you’ll never have children. Babas would at least put some paper under you.

While pregnant:
1. Don’t look at anything ugly/scary or your baby will look that way.

2. Don’t keep a cat in the home or anywhere near a baby.

3. Don’t even think about attending a funeral.

4. Always have a safety pin on you to ward off anyone with an “evil eye”.
After my daughter was born, my mother gave me a pocket knife to keep with me when I was alone until my daughter was baptized , so if a demon came in the house he would think I was a man.

Never show a baby their reflection in a mirror until the baby is over one year old. Never cut a baby’s hair until after their first birthday.

Owls are bad luck and giving an owl ornament brings bad karma. Seeing an owl, especially at night, meant someone died or would die soon.

When someone (a friend or acquaintance) comes to deliver something, the object shouldn’t be passed through the doorway. The visitor should enter the house, or you should go outside to get the item. Otherwise , it’s bad luck!
 
Go outside and stand in the first spring rain and be cleansed and blessed.
 
A cross breeze in your home will kill you. Automatic death from a cold, even in the summer.
 
Never count perogi or they will open up!
 
Never cut a child’s hair before they can talk or else they never will.
 
When sweeping your home, never sweep the dust out over the threshold. You’ll sweep away all your good fortune.
 
No sewing on Sundays. If my mom was sewing a button on my shirt while I was wearing the shirt she would put something in my mouth to sew up my mind.
 
If you dream of the dead, you will hear from the living.

Never pass a sharp object to someone (ie. knife or scissors), lay it on a surface to be picked up.
 
Never shake hands across a threshold.
 
On Christmas Eve, Baba used to give us unmarried girls a handful of cutlery and we would have to rattle it in the wind. Wherever the barking of the dogs or coyotes came from was where our future husbands would come from.
 
Always  lift your feet when driving over railway tracks or you will lose your boyfriend/husband. Don't take pictures with a boyfriend before you have a ring on your finger or the relationship will not work out.
 
Toss poppyseeds down the well if there’s a drought.

Itchy right hand means money coming your way. Itchy left hand means money going out.

If you sneeze on a Sunday, the following week will be bad.

To stop earaches, blow smoke into them.
 
If a thin glass breaks, it means good luck, but if a thick glass or ceramic breaks it means bad luck.

Never hand salt to someone or you will argue with them, put the salt down on the table first.

Cover mirrors after a death in the house.

Dog howls facing up means there will be a fire, dog howls facing down means there'll be a death.

A person with a long neck has a good voice. Thin lips indicate a stingy person.
 
Only use even numbers of flowers for funerals.

Hide a safety pin in your new outfit so people don’t look upon you jealously.

On Christmas Eve, throw a spoon of wheat , if it sticks to the ceiling , it will be a good year.

Never let family or friends leave your home without food. Placing an extra setting at the table on special occasions acts as a sign of respect to the loved ones who have passed and may want to secretly join you.

Always give some money the first time you meet a new baby.
 
Dreaming about teeth falling out is a bad omen.
 
Never swing your legs under the table, it calls the devil.
 
________________________________
 
For more stories about my Baba’s and Dido’s life, including aspects of Ukrainian culture and beliefs, you can read my new historical fiction novel Heart Stones: A Ukrainian Immigration Story of Love and Hope, it is based on my grandparent’s prolonged and difficult immigration to Canada during and after WWI. It was published in early 2023.

Visit my website (more here) for more details about Heart Stones, read reviews and check out my Bookstore page, listen to recent CBC radio interviews, read about my offerings for book clubs, and check out my other blog posts. While here on my website, you can download Chapter One from my book, it’s absolutely free!
​
www.christinenykoluk.com

Follow my author journey and read about other books on my Facebook account:
​
https://www.facebook.com/christinenykolukauthor/
​
 
 
 
 
 

Canmore author Christine Nykoluk. Photo courtesy of Josh Diaz.

Our local newspaper did a feature about me and my novel Heart Stones: A Ukrainian Immigration Story of Love and Hope in time for Remembrance Day, here it is.
 
Canmore author writes on grandparents nine years apart during First World War

Rocky Mountain Outlook News, Canmore, Alberta
Mathew Thompson
November 10, 2023 

CANMORE – Christine Nykoluk wanted to explore the emotional side of her grandparents from the First World War.

In her book Heart Stones, the Canmore-based writer commemorates the nine years her Ukrainian grandparents were separated during the war and when they arrived in Canada.

“My grandmother and her two innocent children were separated from my grandfather for nine long years before the war ended and Canada opened its doors to Ukrainians once again,” said Nykoluk.

She said rather than write a non-fiction book on the experiences, she “wanted to explore the emotional elements of my grandparents’ story.”
“How did they feel? What did they experience?” said the second-generation Ukrainian. “My grandmother spent a number of years in war camps in Eastern Europe and what was it like to go through this experience?”

Myk, who’s based on her grandfather, makes the difficult decision to leave his two children and his wife, Lilia, in search of a better life in Canada. Not long after, the First World War broke out, leaving his family thousands of kilometres away in Ukraine with a dangerous road ahead.

With Lilia and her children pushing through the troubles of war and Myk struggling with authorities who view him as a threat to national security, the book shares a story of patience.

Nykoluk learned her grandparents were separated when she was a kid, but it wasn’t until her 50s through learning more she realized there was a unique story to be told.

“I came to realize that my grandparents’ story was really quite unique and perhaps a bit shocking to many Canadians today,” said Nykoluk.

By piecing together stories shared by her aunt, researching documents and her ancestry, she was able to learn more about what they endured.
“One of my sisters was quite close with one of my aunts, and she took the time to write down my aunts’ stories and that became a really important part of how I was able to create the story and keep the real elements of my grandparents in the story,” said Nykoluk.

Nykoluk said writing the novel and reaching out to older cousins who knew her grandparents, her dad’s side of the family began to have reunions and come together again as they are geographically spread out.

“My novel has been a great way for my family to just share these stories and learn more about our grandparents and why and how we came to Canada,” said Nykoluk.

Nykoluk emphasized more families should preserve their stories as she did.

“It's important for people to understand that stories don't last forever, and families need to write them down. Or else they'll just evaporate,” said Nykoluk. “It is important that people do that, or our families will lose their stories.”

The book is available in the Canmore and Cochrane public libraries as well as Café Books.
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More information along with the first chapter of her book is available at www.christinenykoluk.com.




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What would you sell – or trade - if you needed to pay for your own (or your loved one’s) health care? Chickens, eggs, milk, cattle – or maybe even precious farmland?

How would your life change if we didn’t have the health care system we have now?

Saskatchewan launched Canada’s first health care program in 1957 – thanks to Tommy Douglas – but my own home province of Manitoba did not follow suit until 1969*. That was a full twelve years later, and decades after my family might have benefited, since both of my paternal Galician grandparents suffered from serious medical conditions at the end of their lives.

Canadians needing medical care had to pay for it themselves.

Similarly, most doctors went unpaid (or underpaid), and practiced under difficult conditions, travelling by horse and buggy/sleigh on poor roads and often terrible weather.

I love reading first-person accounts of early Canadians and in the book, “Life Before Medicare: Canadian Experiences” (1995), the authors recorded many first-hand experiences of Canadians affected by lack of healthcare. Many stories were shocking but the core messages were always consistent – no money to pay usually meant no care.

Typically, Canadians were asked on the hospital steps how they expected to pay before they (or their loved ones) were admitted for care.

Ukrainians almost never visited doctors before coming to Canada, instead they relied on traditional medicines and home remedies passed down for generations. Community care providers within most Ukrainian villages included bonesetters (who could also pull teeth), midwives, and spiritual healers.

The first time most Ukrainians were examined by a trained doctor would have occurred during immigration inspection after they crossed the Atlantic. Did those inspections seem odd or uncomfortable? Entry into Canada required immigrants to be free of major health problems: anyone deemed unfit would be sent back to Eastern Europe on the next ship back.

After Ukrainians settled in Canada, they continued to use traditional treatments since many simply did not have access to doctors (ie. due to distance from villages or towns), or they couldn’t afford to pay. Doctors were consulted as a last resort.

Michael Mucz’s book “Baba’s Kitchen Remedies,” (2012) outlines many traditional Ukrainian remedies, his research taking place primarily in east central Alberta. Mucz interviewed more than 200 Ukrainians for his incredible book.

My father was born at home on the farm in spring 1930, his birth registered a few weeks later. Did a relative or neighbor assist with his birth? He sometimes spoke of my grandmother’s use of home remedies such as mustard plasters and garlic worn around the neck to cure colds. And of course, she made home brew in her kitchen, an important Ukrainian medicinal used for a wide variety of afflictions.

Sometimes, traditional remedies even worked where conventional medicine did not (Mucz, 2012).

My grandfather, Wasyl Nykoluk, suffered from stomach and oral cancer for many years until he finally succumbed to his illnesses in 1947 (at age 57), after experiencing many years of physical pain. His death certificate states that his last 23 days on this earth were spent in the St. Rose Hospital.

I suspect that my grandfather’s illnesses were aggravated by the nine-year separation my grandparents endured during and after WWI. Those years must have been highly stressful.

How much had his lengthy hospital stay cost my grandparents?

My grandmother, Anne Nykoluk, developed diabetes in her later years and spent her last three months in Portage La Prairie, were she received medical attention in her final days.  She died in 1957 at age 65.

My father often talked about those difficult years, and the need to sell farmland to pay for medical services.

My grandmother needed to assume many of the heavy farm chores, along with my father (then in his early teens), after my grandfather became too ill to work on their farm. My father attained Grade 8, after which he needed to quit school to help his family operate the farm.

They'd all felt that they’d no other choice.

Lack of basic Medicare meant loss of education opportunities for my father, and loss of hard-earned farm assets, sold to pay for health care.  I am certain that one of Tommy Douglas’ arguments for Medicare was that it would reduce hardship and suffering for families and improve economic productivity on the prairies and Canada. It would also improve the livelihoods of doctors and other health care providers.
 
“The inescapable fact is that when we build a society based on greed, selfishness, and ruthless competition, the fruits we can expect to reap are economic insecurity at home and international discord abroad.”
-Tommy Douglas
 
My family’s situation certainly was not unique. What losses had other Canadian families endured because of lack of basic health care, as we know it today?

What would you sell or trade to ease the pain of your loved ones?

For more stories about my grandparents’ early life and Ukrainian remedies, you can read my historical fiction novel Heart Stones: A Ukrainian Immigration Story of Love and Hope, it is based on my grandparent’s prolonged and difficult immigration to Manitoba during and after WWI. It was published in early 2023.

Visit my website for more details about Heart Stones, read reviews and check out my Bookstore page, listen to recent CBC radio interviews, read about my offerings for book clubs, and check out my other blog posts. While there, you can download Chapter One from my book, it’s absolutely free!

www.christinenykoluk.com

Follow my author journey and read about other books on my Facebook account:
​
https://www.facebook.com/christinenykolukauthor/
​
References
Heeney, Helen. 1995. Life Before Medicare: Canadian Experiences. The Stories Project. Ontario Coalition of Senior Citizens Organizations. Toronto, Ontario.

*Manitoba Medical Service Foundation History. Downloaded October 22nd , 2023 from: http://www.mmsf.ca/about_us.html
​
Mucz, M. 2012. Baba’s Kitchen Medicines – Folk Remedies of Ukrainian Settlers in Western Canada. Edmonton, Alberta. The University of Alberta Press. 

Photo courtesy Peter Nuij, Unsplash.com

It’s a bear!

This summer, my husband and I had four encounters with grizzly bears; fortunately, none of these events resulted in harm to either the bears or ourselves. We saw two grizzlies in Jonas Pass while on a six-day backpack trip, and another walked quietly behind some trees near us on a trail at Lake O’Hara. We viewed the last bear on the South Molar Pass trail, while hiking high above a meadow the grizzly was busily feeding in.  And as well, my husband encountered a confused black bear in our town. We’ve never seen so many bears in one summer.

Bears have always been part of my life; I grew up on the Riding Mountain escarpment of Manitoba, just a few miles (as the crow flies) from the southeast side of Riding Mountain National Park. 

I was only about eight years old when my older sister tied up my younger sister Grace and me with a stretchy pink skipping rope. Pleased with herself, Maryanne walked up our driveway towards the gravel grid road. All of a sudden, she screamed and raced back to the house, without even a tiny thought about her incapacitated younger sisters! Grace and I untangled ourselves from the pink ropey mess and went to the house to see what all of the fuss was about.

“I saw a bear!” Maryanne whimpered.

 What bear?

We all walked towards the road and located a smeared bear track. Startled by Maryanne’s scream, the bear must have been scared off.

Maryanne never lived that story down.

What did my Baba think about the bears that travelled though the bush around their farm? Were bruins new to her, or did she and my grandfather see bears in their home village alongside the Dniester River as well? Or only in the Carpathian Mountains to the west?

One of our family stories is about my Baba going out to the pasture in late evening. She walked by her black cow “Slim,” patted Slim on the head and said a few kind words to her faithful bovine friend.

But it wasn’t Slim – my Baba had patted a black bear on its head.  

This was one of my cousins’ favorite Baba stories, repeated numerous times at reunions.

In another family story, my Baba and Aunt Mary had gone picking saskatoons in their bushy pasture. My grandmother and aunt were deep in conversation on opposite sides of a bountiful bush, filling their pails with juicy saskatoons. After a while, Baba wondered why her daughter wasn’t answering her questions, even though she could see the branches moving opposite her. Baba parted the bushes to have a better look: Mary was nowhere in sight, but there facing her was a bear!

I wonder what the conversation was between Baba and Mary after my grandmother had faced off with that bear, had Mary seen any bruins?

On one of my recent trips with my sisters and cousins to my grandparents’ old farm, a fat and sassy-looking black bear scooted across the grid road in front of us and disappeared into the bush.  How fitting!

For more stories about my Baba’s and Dido’s life, you can read my new historical fiction novel Heart Stones: A Ukrainian Immigration Story of Love and Hope, it is based on my grandparent’s prolonged and difficult immigration to Manitoba during and after WWI. It was published in early 2023.

Visit my website for more details about Heart Stones, read reviews and check out my Bookstore page, listen to recent CBC radio interviews, read about my offerings for book clubs, and check out my other blog posts. While there, you can download Chapter One from my book, it’s absolutely free!
​
www.christinenykoluk.com

Follow my author journey and read about other books on my Facebook account:
​
https://www.facebook.com/christinenykolukauthor/
​
 

Photo courtesy Amazon.ca

​Sometimes I find the most interesting books at thrift stores! I recently discovered such a treasure.

Hiding Scars was written by Winnipeg author Richard Zaric. Oddly enough, the modern-day attractive cover made it difficult for me to place the story in time, until I read the book’s backflap. Hiding Scars is a historical fiction story about Ukrainian immigrants living in Winnipeg during the years 1913 to 1919.  

Since I grew up in Manitoba, and am somewhat familiar with Winnipeg, I enjoyed reading about places I already knew. One of my first full-time jobs was working in the credit department of the historic Hudson’s Bay downtown head office.

Hiding Scars follows Marko, a recent Ukrainian immigrant, and Mildred, the daughter of a rich industrialist in Manitoba’s capital city. Marko works for Mildred’s father. The novel explores gender roles, class difference, and racism as Marko and Mildred navigate through the Great War, prohibition, the Spanish flu epidemic, and finally, the Winnipeg General Strike in 1919.

Zaric’s novel is well researched and I think the characters are well developed. I became invested in them quickly. The plot unfolded effectively and held my attention. The story arc contains an interesting mystery thread about Marko as we wonder why his wife and child perished in the old country. Why didn’t they immigrate with him? The ending caught me by surprise.

I found the violence perpetrated by returning WWI veterans and Winnipeggers against the Ukrainians disturbing. Was it really that dangerous to be a Ukrainian “Enemy Alien” on the streets of Winnipeg at that time? The fear and violence were palpable. I feel compelled to investigate this further.

Hiding Scars is an easy-to-read, informative, and fast paced thriller. Zaric’s story is so engaging that I found it painless to ignore the small typos and errors that I found.  I highly recommend this book if you are interested in learning more about our history during one of Canada’s most tumultuous periods of social upheaval.

Zaric’s book was published in 2018 by Sands Press, a small traditional publisher from Ontario. I suspect it didn’t have the benefit of a significant promotion campaign. Maybe that explains why I haven’t seen it before? Hiding Scars currently has 5 reviews for an average rating of 4.4 out of 5 on Amazon.ca.

What is the most interesting historical fiction novel you have found in a thrift store or jumble sale?
 
Heart Stones: A Ukrainian Immigration Story of Love and Hope, is my own historical fiction novel, based on my grandparent’s difficult immigration to Manitoba before and after WWI. It was published in early 2023. Visit my website for more details about Heart Stones, read reviews and check out my Bookstore page, listen to recent CBC radio interviews, my offerings for book clubs and to check out my other blog posts. While there, you can download Chapter One from my book, it’s absolutely free!

Note: If you find yourself in Canmore on September 28th, 2023, consider visiting the library at 7 pm where I’ll be doing an Author Fireside Chat with fellow author Nikki Tate. Or if you are in Cochrane on October 4th, I will be giving an Author Reading at 6 pm at the library there.
​
www.christinenykoluk.com

Follow my author journey and read about other books on my Facebook account:
​
https://www.facebook.com/christinenykolukauthor/
​

 
Do you tend to read more during summer? I don't watch TV, so I usually read at least one book per week - all year long!  In the last few months I’ve made a point of reading more new-to-me books about Ukrainians and Ukraine.

​In this blog post, I'll write about some recently published non-fiction and historical fiction books. Well researched historical fiction can be a great vehicle for learning more about history.
 
Souvenirs From Kyiv by Chrystyna Lucyk-Berger (2020)

Chrystyna is first generation author from Minneapolis, USA. Her family immigrated as Displaced WW2 refugees; she has also written seven other books. In Souvenirs From Kyiv, Chrystyna used her own family’s stories to develop a collection of fiction writings about being Ukrainian during WW2. On the backflap of her book, she writes that “Russia has been trying to wipe Ukraine off the world map for thousands of years. They haven’t succeeded yet. . . I want people to understand. I want to save this country.”

As we know, many Ukrainian stories can be quite difficult, especially wartime ones. I was hesitant to read this book, already apprehensive about what the stories might contain. However, Chrystyna skillfully writes about difficult topics, and I found the stories very readable and informative.  My favorite story described how a renowned embroiderer expressed her defiance by threading history into her garments, often bought for pennies by enemy soldiers. Another chapter tells about how a family struggles to save a brother from Nazis, the Nazis thinking the brother is a partisan. The reader gets a good idea of what Ukraine must have looked like during wartime by the time the book, only 130 pages long, is finished.

A great read if you are specifically interested in learning more about Ukrainians in Ukraine during and after WW2.

 
Them Days by Glenn P. Booth (2022)

Booth is from Calgary but his ancestral family immigrated to the Gimli, Manitoba area around 1900. The author was born and raised in Winnipeg where he lived with his Ukrainian grandmother. Them Days is a work of historical fiction, based in Winnipeg, and Booth’s grandmother’s stories from the late 1910’s and 1920s.

The main character in Them Days is Sofiya, a girl born on a poor Ukrainian homestead near Gimli. At age thirteen, she is sent to Winnipeg to be a maid for a wealthy English family. Booth has done a thorough job researching the events he writes about:  Them Days touches on topics such as racism and WWI internment of Ukrainians. The Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 is also included.

I found Booth’s characters compelling and I think his book provides a good description of the impacts of WWI on Ukrainians in both Manitoba and Canada. His story is fast paced and I enjoyed reading his descriptions of early Ukrainian farm life on the prairies. Them Days increased my understanding about historical events and the difficult lives of Ukrainian immigrants in the Gimli, Manitoba area.
 
 
Ghosts In A Photograph: A Chronicle by Myrna Kostash (2022)

I’ve read a number of Myrna Kostash’s books over the years and I've always enjoyed her creative non-fiction. Kostash is a well-known writer from Edmonton, Alberta. Her new book does not disappoint, although I found I really had to pay close attention to absorb all of the details she provides in Ghosts In A Photograph.

In Ghosts, Kostash delves into the lives of her grandparents, all whom immigrated from Galicia, present day Ukraine. (Note: I searched her home village Tulova and learned that it is just a two-hour drive from my own ancestral village, Melnytsya Podilska).

Discovering a number of old family photographs, Kostash questions what she knows about her extended families’ pasts.

The use of old photographs made for an intriguing research focus. Using this creative approach, Kostash presents different angles of history, thought, and logic. I liked that her book covers a wide span of time: 1900 to present. This helps the reader untangle the mass of dates and events that readers of Ukrainian history invariably must struggle through.

The unsolved murder of Kostash’s great uncle in Ukraine during WW2 was highly interesting to me. I appreciate the research that she must have waded through in order to make sense of what she’d learned.  Because of its geopolitical location, I'm sure many – if not most - Ukrainians have family members who became involved in secretive activities during wartimes - when clarity over who the real enemy was became inevitably murky.

Kostash’s accounts of her multiple visits to Ukraine, and to her own ancestral village, were interesting to me. Her book provides great background information to anyone trying to better understand Ukrainian history in both Canada and Ukraine since 1900.
 

​Heart Stones: A Ukrainian Immigration Story of Love and Hope by Christine Nykoluk (2023)

Heart Stones is my own recently published historical fiction novel. I developed the story arc using my own paternal Ukrainian grandparents’ protracted immigration experience – my grandfather arrived in Canada in 1914 just months before WWI was declared, leaving my grandmother and their two infants locked in the old country for the duration of the war. They were finally reunited nine years later near Sioux Lookout, Ontario in 1923. That was 100 years ago!

My book is different from others in that my story is told from two points of view: Myk’s voice in Canada, and Lilia’s voice in the old country, both for the duration of WWI, and until 1923. Most scenes were created using actual first person accounts by Ukrainian immigrants. The narrative is dialogue -rich.

My story includes Canadian communities such as Halifax, Sioux Lookout, Superior Lot, Winnipeg, Elie, Selkirk, Brandon, Emerson and Wishart. 

Readers say they find the book fast paced and the characters engaging. A key character named Kost never fails to create different opinions. I find this intriguing since Kost was a real person but my present-day family knows very little about him. We just know that he was an important factor in keeping the Nykoluk family together both during and after the war. 

“A historically rich debut novel . . . Along the way, the author skillfully weaves in vivid elements of Ukrainian customs and history . . . A poignant work with disturbing relevance to today’s battle for Ukrainian democracy.” – Kirkus Reviews

Visit my website for more details about Heart Stones, read reviews and check out my bookstore, listen to recent CBC radio interviews, and read my other blog posts. While there, you can download Chapter One from my book, it’s absolutely free!

www.christinenykoluk.com

Follow my author journey and read about other books on my Facebook account:
​
https://www.facebook.com/christinenykolukauthor/
​
​