Lunch with a Saint

After teaching at the Academy in the morning and having "tea" with the faculty at the law school, I was invited to share lunch with Olga in her book-crammed apartment in the very ecclectic and fascinating neighborhood in the vicinity of Zoloti Vorota and Volodymrska. She cooked me food which she had planted and harvested on her own land on the opposite side of the Dnipro River. We had a marvelous hot borscht, seasoned cauliflower stalks and parsley salad with braised veal. It tasted so good on a snowy day, especially knowing that the hands that cooked it had also planted and nurtured it on the land. The antique clock from her old family home ticked away above us as we ate and visited. Over lunch Olga told me much of her family and her fascinating life, dating back to the horrendous days of the German occupation of World War II, and through her family's deep Orthodox piety during the repressive times of the Soviet Union. Much of what she shared with with me is too sacred and personal to express in this setting, but she has had experiences of deep import, which I have recorded in my personal diary. As I took leave of her I had the impression that here is a true Saint if there ever was one.