Random Memories

This book is a random collection of Jerry Diakiw's memories, stories of his family growing up, of his travel adventures alone on the road, of schools, colleagues and students, stories of teaching and learning. He told many of his stories to his students over his 60 years teaching career, and many of them have urged him to collect the stories into a book. 

One student from the 60s wrote recently: "Jerry, your stories have always fascinated me, since way back in grade 9 geography class! Well I remember tales of you sleeping in the Taj Mahal, adventures on the kibbutz in Israel, etc. Absolutely magical for a young girl who had never even left the province." 

Jerry says, "As important as it is for children to hear or read stories, it is important for the elderly to tell their stories. Stories erupt out of me. I leave these stories for my great grandchildren to browse and read if they ever wonder what one of their forbearers did or thought. If others are interested, read on." 

As a youngster, Jerry often dreamed about his forbearers living on the plains of Ukraine. He pictured the hordes of Ghenghis Khan and armies of Alexander the Great sweeping through Ukraine. He imagined gold artifacts of Scythians living around the Black Sea in 700 BC. He studied the horrors of Stalin's starvation of millions of Ukrainians during the Holodomor. But he wondered most about his family living through these eras, and yearned to know the stories of their lives. 

His hope is that this book will go some way to addressing the shortcomings in his family record and provide a message of hope to his progeny.