Yushchenko's mother dies (02/06/05)

Yushchenko's mother dies

KYIV - Varvara Yushchenko, the mother of newly inaugurated Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, died on January 31 at the age of 86.

News reports said Mrs. Yushchenko passed away after "a long and serious illness." She had been hospitalized in Kyiv for the last few months, according to a statement from the president's press office.

After funeral rites in Kyiv, which included a liturgy at St. Volodymyr Cathedral, Mrs. Yushchenko was laid to rest at the village cemetery in her hometown of Khoruzhivka, in the Sumy Oblast of northern Ukraine.

Mrs. Yushchenko was born on November 27, 1918. She survived the Famine-Genocide and World War II, and was a teacher of mathematics in Khoruzhivka. Widowed since 1992, she is survived by two sons, seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

She was the subject of a documentary aired on January 31 on UT-1 television. The special was titled "Varvara Yushchenko of Khoruzhivka."

Messages of condolences were sent to President Yushchenko from around the world, including the United States and Russia.

In his inaugural address on January 23, President Yushchenko spoke of his mother: "I thank my mother, Varvara Tymofiyivna, for her love and her prayers, which have protected me. I beg her forgiveness for all the pain that her maternal heart has had to endure, especially in the past four months."

Mrs. Yushchenko was predeceased by her husband, Andriy, also a teacher in Khoruzhivka, who was a survivor of the Auschwitz, Dachau and Buchenwald Nazi camps, where he was held as a prisoner of war.

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