ZOYA’S GIFT

In McCormick’s memoir, a found family connects cultures, overcomes language barriers, and crosses borders.

In the 1990s, the author and her husband, Michael, who live in the Seattle area, struggled with infertility and experienced multiple miscarriages. A mental health counselor, she also suffered from chemical sensitivity, which caused “physical, psychological, and emotional reactions to neurotoxic chemicals found in ordinary products considered to be safe.” In 1997, the McCormicks connected with Children of Chernobyl Northwest, an organization that brings kids to Seattle for summer vacations free from radiation exposure. Maria and Vika Petrova, 8-year-old fraternal twins from a town in Belarus to which residents from the Chernobyl radiation area were relocated, come to stay with the couple, beginning a lifetime connection. The girls return in 1998, 1999, and 2001; with the author and Michael, they play the card game Uno, have competitions to see who has the funniest laugh, and enjoy swimming, among other experiences. A prolonged separation after 2001 was difficult for the author: “Knowing we would always view the same moon provided me with the comfort of a touchstone I could never lose.” Six years later, she and Michael reconnected with the young women during a transformative trip to Ukraine and Belarus. They met Vika and Maria’s parents, Zoya and Ivan, and their beloved babushka (grandmother) in person. “My picture of motherhood—and myself—had been transformed when Zoya recognized me as the honorary mother and babushka of her daughters and grandchild,” writes McCormick. In 2014, Vika and Maria traveled to Seattle with Vika’s 2-year-old son and their niece. Over the course of this memoir, McCormick’s eloquent writing about the physical and emotional effects of her medical challenges is touching, and it is likely to resonate with many readers. Her account of the love between the families, her own hopes for the future, and her strong belief in the power of individual acts to bridge cultural divides is inspirational, as when she writes, “I’ve learned that relationships bound by the heart can survive grievous obstacles in a splintered world.”

A moving affirmation of the healing power of interpersonal connection.