Special Diocesan Features Life Letter Written to a Very Much Loved Grandfather – 48 Years After His Repose by Matushka Tamara Skvir
Summer 2016 March, 2013
Read to the Synod of Bishops at Westwood in Syosset, NY Dorogoi Ded! Please excuse me for communicating with you in English rather than in Russian! Recently, I realized that your English was very good! So, today I will use English. As I am sure you know, you are often in my thoughts and prayers, but especially when I encounter
that different from other grandfathers? – well – you did wear a cassock, you had a neat pony tail and a cool looking walking stick which could be used to shoot balls across the floor.) How to answer such a question? Do you think it appropriate for me to share the personal memories sister Marina, my cousins and I have of you? Are you comfortable with mention of such memories as the following: That you had vivid dreams – I thought it was because you always slept in my bedroom and liked my pillow – we used to wait anxiously for your morning accountings of these dreams, That you never held back on blessing us – you would come into our bedrooms after we were asleep and give us just one more blessing – occasionally, I’d try to stay awake wondering if you’d remember to come in – not sure if Marina or my other cousins did the same, That even though you were not “a foodie” and consumed many dry Gorton fish sticks, you did have a food weakness – chocolate – chocolate which you hid in various places of this very building,
difficult times or seemingly insurmountable challenges. At these moments I tend to wander to the family icon corner, or to walk the long hallway (as you used to do during your morning prayers,) or to gaze at the bright distant mysterious moon (which brought you a few sleepless nights.) I feel your presence – comfort comes, challenges are met. Today, I am at your beloved Syosset with cousins Meeky and Julie. Did you know you are adored and revered by far more than we, your grandchildren, had ever imagined? People want to know more about you! There are questions, which I cannot answer. It is for this reason, I ask yet again for your guidance.
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The first question is: “What was Metropolitan Leonty, your grandfather, like?” I just don’t know how to answer such a question! What could people want to know about you from grandchildren who knew/know you as Ded, Grandpoppy? (Were you
That you were fun as a baby sitter – a tease – your training as an only parent of 5 children and a classroom instructor kept us in check, and as I have heard, you (The Metropolitan) were an emergency back up sitter for the Kreta family and other families during choir rehearsals at 2nd street, That you liked to “wander,” “meander,” and could disappear as quickly as you’d appear – at the dacha once we thought we had lost you. Mama kept yelling “Vladyka” and there you were, cassock and all, in the choke cherry tree picking berries for jam. (You had missed the instruction – beach plums – not choke cherries, Ded – I suspect you wanted a better view of Long Island Sound) You must have been well into your 70s!
