What is fate? It’s when, as a child, you see your future husband in a dream and hear his name — Andrii — and years later, at 18, you meet him and have no doubt that he is theone. The following year, you marry, and 29 years together pass in what feels like an instant, yet you remember everything. It’s when you go on living, but your soulmate is no longer here on this Earth, and you still can’t believe it — he reminds you of himself unexpectedly, every day: whether through a melody you hear while walking home through the botanical garden, or in a night vision, asking, ‘How are you without me? Don’t forget!’

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Fate endures for a lifetime. You cannot forget the extraordinary beauty of his deep brown eyes and black brows, his large, kind, manly hands that knew how to support, embrace and cherish our sons and daughter, did a tremendous amount of work, built homes, planted orchards, and defended Ukraine to his last breath in times of trouble. This is all about my fate — Andrii Zhovanyk, a legendary man, Hero of Ukraine (post humously).

Oksana Zhovanyk, literary editor of the GDIP Media Center.