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The last Mennonite widow in Molochansk

Maureen Klassen

Perhaps the most disheartening aspect of life in Molochansk, the former Mennonite town of Halbstadt in the Ukraine, is to observe the struggles of the elderly inhabitants of this town. For the young, a certain optimism and healthy energy often causes them to hope for better things. Middle-aged people, though sometimes cynical or even bitter about the uncertainties of their lives, are usually so caught up in the endless round of work and scheming to ensure their survival that they don’t have a lot of time for reflection, self-pity or depression. It is the elderly who are losing the struggle for survival and who are most frequently the saddest victims of the worsening socio-economic situation in the former Soviet Union.

Those who have reached their 80s have lived through a kaleidoscope of historical changes, second to nothing in human history, including wars, revolution, famine, civil unrest and deportations. Just when things seemed to be improving for them after the long years of Communist oppression, they have more recently lived through roller coaster economic changes that have robbed them of their savings and left them with pensions they cannot survive on. Their plight is more desperate day by day.

Olga

Olga Fast is about 85 and lives in a tiny house on the fringe of Molochansk, isolated from her friends, the local stores and even the bus service to Kutuzovka church, where she is a member. Married to a Russian before World War II, she was exiled to Siberia for several years because of her German connection. Her husband wanted her back when she returned after the war, although he had meanwhile had other wives, but she declined. She bought a little house and has lived there ever since. As we sit at her little table, her bright blue eyes sparkle (though one, she says, doesn’t see well anymore), and she tells us about her youth in Halbstadt, her large family of eight, her sisters Holda and Lucy, and the happy life they had.

We are here to arrange for her to exchange her tiny cottage for one closer to town, where she can live close to her friends and be cared for in her last years. She will need help to buy coal to cook by and to keep the cold away. She’ll also be glad of help to get the cataract removed from her eye. (She says the hospital told her, “Don’t come if you don’t have money.”) But Olga is one of the more fortunate; she has friends and is in touch with a church fellowship that will not abandon her.

Raisa

Olga and Raisa went to the Mädchenschule (Mennonite girls’ school) together. But that was many years ago. Raisa and her husband Nikolai don’t have as many friends as Olga has. Once they enjoyed a brief spell of a relatively good life, when they were able to buy a little old house in a quiet end of Molochansk . It still looks very well cared for, and there are still signs of the better life they once knew. But now they are at the end of their resources. They lost all their savings which had they gathered for a comfortable retirement. These days, they have to make do on their meagre pensions, which means they largely live from their vegetable patch, canning fruit for the winter and drying various herbs for their tea. Unfortunately, Nikolai, who once had a full life as a professional photographer, is now very sick. He suffered a heart attack three years ago when he was bitten by a vicious dog. He is now partially paralyzed, suffers from asthma and needs a period of hospitalization. But hospitals cost money, they don’t feed their patients, and Raisa is too old to walk there every day with his food. Such choices are daunting for the aged. Choosing to stay at home may mean a swifter demise, but at least he will be with his beloved companion. He prays a lot, she says, but he’s Orthodox; she had a long-distant Lutheran upbringing in a fine German family, and has little sympathy for his rituals. Now she is weeping at the prospect of life alone . . . with no friends, no money and no Nikolai. We help her to remember the Lord’s Prayer she learned in school. We assure her of our friendship and offer help with some medical needs and a trip to the hospital in Tokmak. As we share their soup, they seem grateful for loving support, but frankly say that they fear a bleak future.

Brutal economic reality often means that the elderly cannot afford trips to a doctor, hospital care, essential medication, adequate nutrition or warmth. They simply opt to stay at home and face the inevitable. We who are used to a system that assumes the availability of all of the above, find it hard to watch these desperate souls facing these choices bravely every day and succumbing to their lot.

We trust that the presence of the Mennonite Centre in Molochansk will go beyond our first overtures of friendship with the Olgas, Raisas and Nikolais, find ways to make their last days more peaceful and dignified, and strengthen their faith for their last journey.

Maureen and Herb Klassen are members of South Abbotsford MB Church in Abbotsford, B.C. They served for four months in the summer of 2000 as interim directors of the Mennonite Centre in Molochansk, which has been set up by Canadian Mennonites to offer spiritual, social and economic help to the people of the Ukraine (see news story, Sept. 28, 2001). In September 2001, Olga Fast cut the ribbon when the former Mädchenschule (the Mennonite girls’ school she had attended as a child) was reopened as the Mennonite Centre. She has now been moved to her “new” house, which received a new floor made from leftover renovation materials from the Mennonite Centre. She still has outside plumbing and has a ten-minute walk to obtain water. She would like to greet anyone in Canada who remembers her father, the Halbstadt teacher.

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Last modified January 14, 2002.

© 2002 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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