View From a Prairie Home

by Hege Hernfindahl, Columnist

I was thinking of him today as I got out of bed. One more day. Without him. I go to therapy now to help me. Not to get over my grief of losing my son. It will never be over, but I have chosen life for myself and I still don’t know what that life will look like. So my kind therapist is helping me with the trauma of losing two sons in two years. She says it is ok to grieve openly. It is even helpful. Not only for me, but for others too, because all people, if they dare to love, will experience grief of some kind or another.

Which leads me to the rest of the world. And to Ukraine. And how the war in Ukraine is impacting us all. Imagine the grief of all the people in an active war zone. The grief for what they have lost and the utmost terror of what they have now and the fear of what tomorrow will bring. And then there is the issue of food.

Ukraine has fertile soil and temperate climate. Therefore, it produces more grain that the people can consume, so they sell this grain. It is shipped by boat from the Black Sea port of Odesa. From here, the ships can go to the Mediterranean Sea and export its grain to the Middle East, which does not have the ability to supply its people with enough food. Exports also go from here to both Africa and Europe.

With the port of Odesa now blocked by the Russians, the Ukrainian farmers cannot export their grain and people will suffer and the poorest will starve. Starving people will become desperate and more war might happen. The surge of refugees from the Middle East and Africa will increase. And then we have the problems of the heart wrenching decisions of what to do with the increasing throngs of desperate people.

My brother says he is obsessed with the war in Ukraine and with good reason. Norway shares a border with Russia in the north. It is the only country bordering Russia where an invasion by the Soviet Army was withdrawn due to a NATO intervention. But now, Norwegian intelligence is concerned with increases in nuclear weapons on board Russian warships in the Barents Sea, which, in addition to Russia, also borders Norway and Finland.

I am also reminded of the accident in Chernobyl by a nuclear power plant in 1986. Chernobyl is located in the Kiev region of Northern Ukraine, but the winds from the power plant with its nuclear particles rained over northern and central Norway. At the time, our family was hiking in the Norwegian mountains, which looked and smelled pure and serene. It was an eerie feeling to know that the water and the grass and all the blueberries were radioactive. As I am writing this, I am thinking of six-year-old Erland with his golden hair and big blue eyes hiking with us. Did he, unknown to us, pick some berries? Was this the cause of him developing cancer 36 years later?

We just found out from Erland’s boss, trade ambassador, Tai, that she and Erland went to Ukraine after the war had broken out. I presume it was on a trade mission trip. Erland’s job was that of a trade diplomat to Europe. And I presume they were talking about how to improve the lives of the Ukrainian people during war. He never told us. He traveled a lot for work and often didn’t tell us where, since parents do worry. But we did know that one of his last acts before the cancer demanded all his attention, was to send money to a youth church program in Kiev. He cared deeply for all people and made it his life mission to help where he could. All we, his old parents, can do, is to pay attention to what is going on and be open to help when we can.