Bohuslava Macilynsky

Bohuslava "Slavtsia" Okhrymovych was born on May 9, 1875 in the village of Senechil, Dolyna county, Ukraine. In the far away mountain village on the Precarpathian (Hungarian) border, where the homes were scattered by distance in the mountains, and as there were no schools, she did not attend one, and was taught at home by her parents. In spite ofthis, she was well read, was fully aware of her surroundings and world events, and shared this knowledge with her children.

In February 1906, Bohuslava married Yevhen "Genio" Macilynsky, a descendent of a distant priestly lineage. He was born on January 4, 1874 in Dzvynaichy, Zalischyky county. His parents were: Lev Macilynsky (born in 1845 in Dsvyniachy and died in 1896) and Eleonora Ivanytsky. Yevhen completed six years of high school, but because of the death of his father, he had to drop out of school, and assume the responsibilities of farming the land. For some time, in between his farming, he taught in Dzvyniachy, worked for the taxation government office, and spent three years practicing at a drug store, in order to become a pharmacist. However, he did not get his pharmacist's licence, because the Jewish pharmacists, who oversaw the industry, allowed very few Ukrainians to enter this profession.

In 1907 the young Macilynsky couple sold their property in Dzvyniachy, and purchased a mill and forest in Strutyna Vyzhna. However, a yearlater, they sold this and bought an estate with a courtyard from a landowner's parcelled property in Orelets, Sniatyn county. There wa a kitchen-garden, a large orchard, a park, and not a lot of arable land. But as a result, the view from the house on the hill, overlooking the river Prut and towards the Carpathian mountains in the horizon was spectacular. They lived off of their properties.

Still in Strutyna, Slavtsia gave birth to a son Omelian Julian; in the village of Orelets to Konstantin, Bohdan (who died as an infant from diphteria) and Ostap, and later in Urych - to Damian.

In 1915, during the Russian occupation of Halychyna, the Macilynskys had to escape from Orelets, because the Russians always demanded a ransom ( in other words, they were landowners, of sorts), and the Russians behaved very badly with the local population. They lived through the war-time period in Volosianky, at her sister's place, Olia (Okhrymovych) Revakovych and partly also with her brother Roman in Urych. In Urych was born their youngest son Damian on August 17, 1917. They returned to Orelets only after the end of the war between Austria and Russia in 1917. There they found everything destroyed and looted. In the difficult beginnings, before they were able to get back on their feet with their farm, they were helped by Bohuslava's brothers Roman and Bohdan, and her sister Olena Zalizniak.

So as to give their sons an education, it was necessary to send them away from home - to Lviv, Sniatyn or Kolomya, and all of this was intertwined with the expenses that they were not in a position to pay fromthe income of their estate. This was especially true when it came to paying for their oldest son Omelian's university education, it became necessary to sell off portions of their estate in order to find the necessary funds. In 1932, it became necessary to sell off the rest of their estate, and then the Macilynskys moved to Bohuslava's brother Ostap's residence, who was the parish priest in Dychkiv near Ternopil. There they jointly farmed the land until 1936 when they moved to Lviv, where they lived together with their sons Konstantin, Ostap and Damian. In 1938 Bohuslava and Yevhen moved to Sianok, to their oldest son Omelian's place, who in the meantime had completed his pharmacology studies, was married, and got a job at a drug store.

In the life of the Macilynsky family there was no lack of tragic experiences. In 1927, when their son Konstantin was attending 7th grade high school, he, along with other Ukrainian studentsm was accused by Polish authorities in sabotage, and was arrested and sentenced in Lviv. though he was released from any wrongdoing and punishment, he was suspended from high school, and he could not continue with his studies, because his enrollment in any schools in Poland was forbidden. His two younger brothers, Ostap and Damian, before the outbreak of the Polish-German war in 1939 were also arrested for their membership in the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). When the Germans occupied Lvivthey were released. Damian joined the marching division of OUN (Bandera faction) that went into the Eastern parts of Ukraine, where the Germans arrested and executed him in 1941 in Mykolayiv. Ostap continued his work with the OUN, and in the Spring of 1940 he died in a shootout with NKVD agents in Lviv.

The war saw the elderly Macilynskys in Sianok at the residence of their son Omelian. Though Omelian was drafted into the Polish army, to his good fortune the quick disintegration of Poland gave him the opportunity to return home and to continue taking care of his parents. When in the summer of 1944 the war front began to get closer to Sianok, Omelian was able to rent an open railway wagon and the whole family (Omelian already had two sons) was able to leave in it and travel to Vienna. There all of them were welcomed into the home of Bohuslava's sister, Olena Zalizniak.

During the bombardment by American planes of central Vienna, the homewhere they all lived, was bombed. The residence was on the third floor, and everyone descended the stairs to the shelter in the basement, two floors under the earth. Bohuslava, however, was not able to descenddown the stairs to the cellar because of her heart problem and her bad state of health. During one of the many bomber flights over the city, she remained in the kitchen, and Yevhen had gone to the adjoining room, in order to open all the windows (this was customary to prevent the shattering of windows, as even bomb blasts from a distance would shatter the glass). A bomb exploded on the fourth floor of the building, and the debris from this blast also destroyed the third floor residence. The force of the bomb blast threw Bohuslava through the third floor window and onto the courtyard where she died. Yevhen found himselfin the ruins on the second floor, but the wing of the piano that he was near stood guarding over him. When they dug him out of the debris, he was not even injured, he was just in shock. But he was never able to shake off this initial shock of that horrible day on April 12, 1945. Bohuslava was buried at the Central Cemetary in Vienna. The Macilynsky family moved to a village in the locality of Passdorf not far fromVienna where their son Konstantin was living with his family. Konstantin later emigrated to the West, and Omelian alogn with his father remained behind, and when the Soviet troops arrived, they were repatriated back to "na rodinu" (homeland) and ended up in Cracow, Poland. Fromthere, Omelian was able, shortly after, to travel to Bavaria. His father Yevhen remained in Cracow where he was looked after by Rev. Van Der Maliye, the parish priest of the Ukrainian Catholic church. Living to 71 years of age, Yevhen died in Cracow in 1947 and was buried there at the Rakowiecki cemetary.

Before these horrible misfortunes befell the Macilynsky family, family life was, principly in Orelets, pleasant and happy. They would be visited during the summer months by Olenka and Julian Zalizniak, and time went by calmly and happily. All the young people went to swim in the river Prut, to catch fish and to play "kichka", and in the evening to play on the mandolin and to sing folk songs and Sich Riflemen songs. They also played cards, and here Bohuslava's sister Olena (Okhrymovych) Zalizniak showed her expertise in preference, tarok and bridge. The house was full of joy, harmony and a truly family warmth.