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32 OUR LIFE • June 2023 IN MEMORIAM Assya Humesky Branch 50, Ann Arbor, MI Assya Humesky, Professor Emerita of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of Michigan and beloved member of UNWLA Branch 50, Ann Arbor, MI, passed away on Friday, March 31, 2023, after a brief illness. When word got out that Assya had passed away, our Branch 50 email began to fill up with friends’ imme - diate responses: she was a legend, an icon, powerful, brilliant, brave. She was indeed all these things and more, but we, members of her Branch, mainly remember a deep friendship and affection for Assya, who played many roles in our Branch. As a founding mem - ber of Branch 50 and an educator, she helped organize a Saturday Ukrainian Language School for Branch members’ children (1964– 1971). She also served several terms as president of the Branch (1966–1972) and over the years kept us informed and entertained during monthly meetings. Assya always found a page in a book, or a poem, or an article in the newspa - per with which to regale us, often marked by her remarkable sense of humor. She also had an excel - lent singing voice and loved to sing from a huge store of songs in many languages. On a more serious side, Assya would enlighten us with a presentation about important de - velopments around the world in the fields of Ukrainian literature, linguistics, and politics. What a life story Assya Humesky had! She was born in 1925 in Kharkiv, into a family that strongly maintained their Ukrainian identity; be - cause that was politically incorrect in the Soviet world, they endured many hardships. In 1933, when Assya was just nine, her father, Serhiy Pylypenko, a Ukrainian writer and organizer of “Pluh” (Plow), which helped peasant youth sharpen their literary talents, was arrested for his nationalistic position. His family never saw him again. Like many Ukrainian intellectuals, Serhiy Pylypenko fell victim to Stalin’s regime, was arrested for his unacceptable Ukrainian prose, and sentenced to death. His wife, Tatania Kardinalovska, and their two daughters, Assya and Mirtala, were exiled to russia. That is where Assya began her ad - venture in learning foreign languages. She already spoke russian and Ukrainian, and in school she was taught to read and write, but not to speak, German. After five years in russia, mother and daughters found their way back to Ukraine, only to suffer the onset of the German invasion. In 1943, Assya, now 17, was deported into forced labor in Germany. Their little family would have been broken up, but Tatiana and Mirtala managed to jump on the train carrying Assya and hundreds of Ukrainian girls. As she spoke a little German, Assya was assigned lighter work. Later, she was sent to Austria and had an opportunity to learn yet another lan - guage. This time it was French, which she learned on an assembly line populated with French university students who, like Assya, had been forced into slave labor to support the Nazi war effort. Despite all the confusion, Tatiana was able to keep the family together by following wherever the Germans moved Assya. It turned out that Assya was not yet done with new countries or new languages. At the very end of the war, all three of them escaped from the labor camp and walked 300 kilometers across the Tyrolean Alps to a Displaced Persons camp in Ita - ly. On the way there, Assya acquired as a gift a scavenged russian/Eng - lish dictionary that she perused for lack of any other books to read. The English she learned would come in handy, as she would soon spend time in the UK after the war and finally settle in the U.S. It was in the UK, at a dance organized by a Ukrainian immigrant organ - ization, that Assya met her future husband, Evhen (Eugene) Humesky. Within days, Assya had moved to the U.S. with her family, so she and Evhen carried on a five-year courtship by mail before he would join her
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