So Thankful for My Freedom
Do you remember the day the Berlin Wall came down?
It was November 9, 1989. I was 19 and I remember being in class at the university when I heard the news.
That moment is one of those things that has stayed with me over the years because it was the first time I really understood that a group of people, united in a single cause, could create a world of a difference.
It was also poignant for me because all four of my grandparents were from Russia. They had been able to escape to freedom after Russia joined the Soviet Union, just before the borders closed. Many of my relatives chose to stay behind, hoping the political climate would change. But by the time they realized it was only getting worse, it was too late for them to leave.
Because my ancestors were Mennonites who had migrated to Russia from Prussia during the 1700′s at the invitation of Catherine the Great , and were given special treatment in a country where too many others were starving, they were the target of much antagonism during the Russian Revolution. Many of my family members who didn’t escape when my grandparents did have long disappeared. Some we know were sent to Siberia and were never heard from again.
The wall coming down was the first wave of a tide that would sweep across Eastern Europe and dissolve the Soviet Union in 1991.
When I think back to my grandparents and great-grandparents choosing to leave everything and everyone they knew so they could raise their families in freedom, I am overwhelmed. To pack up their young children, everything they could carry, to travel on a 6-week voyage to a country they had never seen, with a language they had never heard… to me, in my life of freedom and choice, it is almost unfathomable.
Today is Remembrance Day in Canada, and Veterans Day in the United States. It is a day when I remember how grateful I am that there have been people throughout history and today, who stand together and choose to make a difference.
Sometimes it is by donning a uniform and taking up a weapon. Sometimes it is giving up their lives for generations of people they will never meet. Sometimes, as in the case of my grandparents and great-grandparents, it is giving up everything you know for the promise of something better.
On this day, as I am home with my children, with the freedom to teach them what I want, to travel where I want, and to work where I want, I am overwhelmed with gratitude for everyone who has united across the centuries for my freedom.
Thank you.
~ Denise
