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THE THREE MARTAS by Marta Zielyk Marta Zielyk holds the position of Diplomatic Interpreter at the State Department. She is not a political appointee. All views, thoughts and ideas expressed in this article are her own and do not reflect the views of any body of the US government. At the Lviv Opera House, during the First Lady's first office visit to Lviv, Ukraine. November 1997. From left: Marta Kolomayets-Yanevska, Marta Zielyk, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Marta Jarosewich-Holder, Lyudmyla Kuchma. There is a quaint Ukrainian custom to which I was introduced only after numerous trips to Ukraine. It has to do with making a wish when one stands between two people of the same name. If, for example, a Sofia happens to find herself in the presence of two Ivans, she should stand between them and make a wish. Supposedly, her wish will come true. If there is indeed any basis to this belief, then the Vice President of the United States, A1 Gore, the First Lady, Hillary Clinton, and the former US Ambassador to Ukraine, William Miller, will be thrice blessed. All of them were recently lucky to stand between not two, but three — count 'em -- three Martas: Marta Jarosewich-Holder, Marta Kolomayets-Yanevska and yours truly, Marta Zielyk. I am sure that none of "The Three Martas" as we have taken to calling ourselves could have imagined that our paths — professional and personal — would be so intertwined. Which of us could have predicted, when we were 16 year olds sitting around a Plast vatra at Vovcha Tropa, that more than twenty years later we would regularly get together for sushi in a restaurant in the chic Podil area of the capital of an independent Ukraine? Which of us could have dreamed, when we were listening to Saturday morning Ukrainian classes in our hometowns of Chicago and New York and Silver Springs, Maryland, that one day we would all be working for the US government, each in her own way helping to further the relationship between the United States and Ukraine? And finally, could any one of us have ever dreamed up a set of circumstances which would bring the three of us together in the same place, at the same time, with the Vice President and the First Lady of the most powerful country in the world, with a photographer ready and waiting to record the meeting? Though I am sure that all of us point proudly to these photographs as a tangible reflection of the fact that we have indeed reached a certain level in our professional lives, the essence of the story of "The Three Martas" is not having our picture taken with VIP's. For while it is personally gratifying, this accomplishment is insignificant compared to the true heart of this story: friendship, or more specifically, friendship between or among women, or girlfriends, as we like to call ourselves. The older I get, the more intensely I treasure the fact that I have friends like the two Marta. Next to my family, of course, they are the ones who keep me grounded, the ones who serve as my anchor during life's good, bad and thrilling experiences. I don't think our friendship was something inevitable or preordained. Our paths had intersected at various points in our lives, and our friendship evolved through a natural process in which such friendships are 20 НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, БЕРЕЗЕНЬ 1999 Видання C оюзу Українок A мерики - перевидано в електронному форматі в 2012 році . A рхів C У A - Ню Йорк , Н . Й . C Ш A.
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