Marina’s godmother (and my best friend in Allentown) had important news. She had just published her first children’s book, about the Ukrainian tradition of pysanky.
While awaiting my copy of Sophie and Her Sisters Decorate Eggs for Easter, written by Terese Wallack Waldron and illustrated by her cousin Lisa Mendillo Kulhanek, I decided to quiz my sisters about their memories of pysanky via email. Our mother, a Wrobleski, was of Polish descent, not Ukrainian, but the two countries share a border, history, and traditions.
During The Country Sampler years, my mother sold Pysanky Kits and offered workshops in the art of Easter egg decorating. At home, we sat around the dining room table using simple tools dipped in beeswax, drawing designs on an egg, dyeing the egg in a light color, adding more beeswax designs, and progressively dyeing the egg in darker colors.
Lee Ann: The first thing that comes to mind are the “how to decorate Ukrainian egg demonstrations” I gave at The Country Sampler. It was all fun, but the best part was removing the wax and exposing the glorious colors!
Lisa: Yes, removing the wax and working on the large goose eggs. Adding more and more details to fill up the space. Plus, the smell of beeswax was such a joy!!
Leslie: The first time I watched Daddy blow out a raw egg and then doing it. My cheeks were so sore. Avoiding the black flame marks. Never as neat and detailed as my older siblings but feeling proud of results. I loved the kit in the small yellow and white box. Had it for years.
Larissa: I remember my eggs were never as artistic as my sisters’. I never had straight lines. I also remember the Ukrainian egg puzzle we had. I was better at doing that.
“Bar-ra-ra-kkk, bar-ra-ra-kkk, bar-ra-ra-kkk,” my neighborhood watch-dog sings. Finally, Sandy’s favorite postwoman, Mel, arrives with the package. I cut the packing tape and pull out the book covered in the colors of the flag of Ukraine.
In the story, Sophie and her four sisters, Milly, Tekla, Helena and Lovey, get together Easter week with their three nieces to relax, enjoy each other’s company, and pass on the pysanky tradition to the next generation. The book is dedicated to the grandparents of Terese and Lisa, Tekla and John Wallack, Ukrainian immigrants who came to America more than 100 years ago to build a new life in New Britain, CT.
In 2001, Terese sketched out her pysanky remembrances in a rhyming story. During Covid, while de-cluttering her desk, she rediscovered the manuscript. With the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the story of the pysanky tradition took on more importance. She contacted her cousin, an award-winning graphic designer who lives in St. Paul, MN. Thus began the Pysanky Project, their nine-month self-publishing odyssey which they affectionately call their “labor of love for our Ukrainians”.
Meanwhile, like Sophie and her four sisters “who are slightly past their peak,” I’m thinking this book is a great Easter gift for a grandchild. And, like Terese, who gave birth to her first book in 2023, her godchild (my daughter Marina) is expecting to give birth to her first child in July 2023. Time to place another book order. Laurie Lynch
A Good Cause: Terese and Lisa hope to sell as many books as possible this spring so they can fulfill their mission to make a donation to St. Jude’s Global/Safer Ukraine for every book sold. The Safer Ukraine organization helps Ukrainian children with cancer, a mission especially close to the hearts of the two cousins, both cancer survivors.
Where To Find Sophie: Sophie and Her Sisters Decorate Eggs for Easter, first in a series of four books, is available through Etsy for $19.99 at: sophiesisters.etsy.com. For those who live in the Lehigh Valley, you can buy the book at the paperbag, 3900 Hamilton Boulevard complex, C. Leslie Smith, at the Shops at Cedar Point, and Let’s Play Books, 244 Main St., Emmaus.
To Be Perfectly Clear: Unlike Sophie and her sisters, when the “Wrobleski” girls did pysanky, there was no eating of Ukrainian or Polish baked goods. At Easter, we only ate Nene’s Northern Italian Sweet Easter bread (which she called Fuatha) studded with golden raisins and citrus rind. It could be buttered, but never toasted.
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