By Pamela Cruz. Images and interview by Manuel Ortiz.
Sometimes it's Rummycub, sometimes it's some activity that brings everyone together to live and smile. But nothing makes Tsiliy Tankover happier than knowing her family is happy, safe and close to her, in a space where she can still enjoy her grandchildren, far from the war she experienced in her childhood.
Beautiful and with a smile that lights up the grounds of the Choice in Aging adult care center in the city of Pleasant Hill, Tsiliy knows that everything good she experiences today is part of a resilience that is part of a life that, in memories, traces back to running to survive.
He was born in the beautiful port city of Odessa, Ukraine, on the shores of the Black Sea, that covered by famous beaches and its nineteenth-century architecture, which today suffers the ravages of war, an invasion that gives no respite to anyone who crosses its path.
Now 94 years old, she tells P30P that since she was a child, her life has been tormented by war. By the time she was just 7 years old, a civil war raged in her country, and her father had to join the army.
Years later, all the men in her family were enlisted in the army and she had to learn to walk alone with her mother through all the nightmare that enveloped the space she knew as home.
World War II begins and they are strongly instructed by their father to leave Odessa, because the German army was approaching in search of Jews to persecute.
Tsiliy and his mother managed to escape in a wagon of a train carrying animals bound for Kazakhstan, whatever it took to survive.
After two or three years of waiting in migration, he was able to return to his hometown, but things would not get any easier.
Once he returned to Odessa, he went back to school and started working, as he needed to support his family financially, which he never stopped doing for his family.
THE U.S. BECAME HER SECOND HOME WHEN IN 1980 HER HUSBAND DIED. The U.S. became her second home when in 1980 her husband died. Her daughter and son-in-law decided that they should leave the Soviet Union, as they knew it was too dangerous to continue living there.
For Tsiliy, life depended on moving on, on finding better air. However, leaving behind everything that made up his life was never easy.
That is why this resilient Ukrainian knows the pain and feelings of those who today leave their homes in the midst of a senseless war.
In Ukrainian, he details the pain his heart feels knowing what is happening again in that nation he always remembers with love.
"It hurts my heart - hearing about the war in Ukraine - I feel the pain of every person living through this tragedy. People who are going through this war, they will never forget it," he says.
For her, war is a difficult subject. A space that should have peace has become a place where it's just "people killing people."
However, there is hope and love within all the tragedy.
He assures that love and help can be lived within a war because, even among gunshots and bombs, there is kindness like the one he experienced during World War II, where people gave them bread and meat so that all the children could eat.
Peace in the midst of a pandemic
With just under two years living at Choice in Aging, Tsiliy feels at peace and loved.
Life was put to the test again when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world, her age putting her among those most at risk of acquiring the SARS-CoV-2 virus and dying from it. But she would not give up, not at this point.
There was crying and fear for not being able to get close to the people she loved, for not knowing how everyone would get out of this battle that attacks everyone equally. The restrictions came, she could not leave her apartment, so staff brought supplies to her door.
The vaccines arrived and Tsiliy thought nothing of it, it was back to fighting an enemy that was just a door away. With two doses of the vaccines that brought hope back to the world, she managed to find a place that, today, has become a home for her.
"I was scared just like everyone else. But yes, I am vaccinated with two doses because I want to be safe and not get the virus from someone who comes close. I felt safe after the vaccine," she explained.
She did not lose anyone to the virus, but she learned that there are options that would help her feel safer, such as wearing masks and keeping her distance from those who do not have the vaccines, even if it means keeping little communication.
With a lifetime of experiences that have marked her and left a mark on her resilience, she recognizes that family is the most important thing, so appreciating the parents and grandparents who now live in nursing homes like her is of utmost importance.
"People have to appreciate their people. The memory of your family is very important, your mother, father, siblings, your whole family. Even if you have great memories of it, people have to appreciate their people."
Today, with all that she has lived through, she also knows that being positive and enjoying the good that surrounds her is key to being a resilient person who most desires "peace for the whole world".
For her caregiver, Marina Belevich, who supported P360P in simultaneously translating Tsiliy's experiences, coming to work in a space like Choice in Aging was a blessing.
"I always work with love, you know, love everywhere because the people who are worth are those who are ?young? because of the heart, because of the faith, because of their attitude. I always get love from them," he said.
He added that while it is true that the situation has not been easy for anyone because of the pandemic, "we have to be strong to move forward and support our people. We have to focus very quickly and we did that from the beginning when we closed, and we were working eight hours a day from home."
Belevich focused on helping the most vulnerable with activities that would make these older adults who were not having a good time feel accompanied.
"How are you? What do you need? we asked. Some people like to play trivia or board games, but we had to explain what this pandemic is, it wasn't simple."
She also emigrated. She was born in Ukraine, but lived since childhood in Russia. Until, out of necessity, she decided to leave. Today, the war hurts her, and she cannot imagine how a country so full of good and kind people, as Ukraine is, is going through a war that does not stop.
Tsiliy Tankover was present during a briefing held by Ethnic Media Services in collaboration with the California Department of Aging, where experts emphasized that vaccination and promotion of booster shots is the key to re-integrating these population groups back into their communities and reconnecting with family and friends.
When some 272 community day care centers for older adults in California closed, hundreds of thousands of seniors were left isolated, according to Susan DeMarois, director of the California Department of Aging.
Meanwhile, 71 percent of deaths due to COVID-19 in California occur among people 65 years of age or older, which is worrisome, especially when there is a slowdown in obtaining vaccines and boosters among this population, since one third of people over 60 years of age in the U.S. are not fully vaccinated or have any booster.
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