Mourning death of renowned poet

The North Port and Southwest Florida Ukrainian American community bid farewell to a poet and writer, member of the Association of Writers of Ukraine, read and celebrated here as well as in Ukraine and worldwide Ukrainian settlements.
Halyna Pankiw, 92, known by her pen name Hanna Cherin, died Tuesday, July 19. 2016, and was laid to rest at Venice Memorial Gardens on Friday, July 22.
The traditional “Panakhyda” (requiem service) at the local Farley Chapel was celebrated Thursday by two Ukrainian Orthodox priests, the Rt. Rev. John Fatenko and the Rev. Oeh Saciuk, and the Solemn Requiem Liturgy (Mass) was celebrated by these two priests at St. Andrew’s Ukrainian Church, where the deceased worshiped. The church choir under the direction of Anastasia Fatenko sang beautiful responses at both services.
Speakers at the service and during the “Tryzna” (memorial luncheon following the interment) at the Family Table Restaurant were the Rt. Rev. John Fatenko on behalf of the local Ukrainian Orthodox community and Maria Nikitin on behalf of St. Andrew’s Ukrainian Religious and Cultural Center. They thanked her for many years of dedicated service at the center and at the Sen. Paul Yuzyk Memorial Library which is located at the Center, Mykola Weremijenko, a longtime friend of the deceased also spoke.
Halyna Pankiw, aka as Hanna Cherin, was born April 29, 1924, in Kyiv, now capital of Ukraine. She started to write poetry as a child. After graduating from high school she was accepted, without having to take entrance examinations because she graduated with honors from her high school, to study at the Kyiv Shevchenko University. Her studies were interrupted by World War II. After the war she wound up in the displaced persons camps in Germany, where her first book of poems “Crescendo” was published in 1949.
In 1950, she immigrated to the United States, settled in Chicago, eventually graduated from the University of Chicago and became the head of the University of Chicago Library. After her retirement in 1988, she came to Florida and devoted her time and talents to North Port’s St. Andrew’s Ukrainian Religious and Cultural Center, known as “Oseredok” (center) in Ukrainian, and especially to the center’s library, the largest Ukrainian language library in Florida.
Hanna Cherin authored 26 books of poetry and artistic prose, including some travelogues. Many of her works are directed at the children and teenagers, but it would be inaccurate to describe them as “children’s books” because her writings were universally admired and loved.
May she rest in peace: “Veeechnaya Pamyat!” (eternal memory).
•••
Sad news came from Toronto, Canada: A professor in the departments of History and Science, York University in Toronto, Orest Subtelny, Ph.D. (Harvard University, 1973), a Canadian historian of Ukrainian descent, author of many articles and books, active in Ukrainian Canadian organizations, especially “Plast” (Ukrainian Canadian Scouting Organization) lost his valiant fight with cancer July 24, 2016. He was born in 1943 in Krakow, Poland.
Subtelny and his writings were known throughout the world, including Ukraine. He will be missed by academia and the general public. “Veechnaya Pamyat!”
Atanas Kobryn covers the Ukranian community for the North Port Sun. He can be e-mailed at atanask@aol.com 
 

Our Neighbors — The Ukrainians
by Atanas Kobryn