Behind the scenes of the “memory table”. As the action turns into a national tradition of honoring

When new sunshines appear on the map, we know: another institution has joined the “memory table”. This action, which is held in the partnership of the Elijah Hrabara Charitable Foundation and the Memorial Memory Platform has grown into a large -scale and moving ritual for three years. A cafe in the center of the capital, a village library and a school, a unit on the front line – all of them are united by one desire: not to leave their heroes without names and honor. This is how a new tradition is born – from the pain of loss and great love during the war.

– We close the questionnaire?

– We have two more days for registration.

Advertising:

– We do not have enough 1000 pieces of plates, – I say.

– Let’s send everything, don’t worry.

Maria Grabar and I, the initiator of the action, look at the laptop, where a new registration for the action table is added every minute. For Mary, this action began as an action to honor the memory of a fallen man – a sound producer and military volunteer Ilya Hrabar. Now this ritual has become part of a public memory.

While we were talking – 5 more registration. Institution in the center of Kiev, a village library in Kherson region, a well-known bookstore in Lviv, a small cafe in Ivano-Frankivsk, a brigade, which is now in combat in Donetsk region.

The memorial office is not yet fantastic. Volunteers do not yet print registers for sending to all corners of Ukraine and do not pack in the parcel packages of the plate “This table is reserved for the boldest among us.”

But every minute the stock is already added to the map. Each of them symbolizes the honor of the heroes, because on August 29, each of these locations reserves the table in memory of the defenders, decorate it with sunshine and candle as symbols of our common loss.

We order a print another 1000 tablets, then another 2000 – with a stock. They include 10,000 leaflets where Ukrainians will write down the names of their people: men and women, siblings, brothers and siblings, sons and daughters, friends and girlfriends, and also people they learned after their death. All those who fell in the war against Russia.

***

Our office for four days turns into a warehouse. Here are packing boxes and a blistering film. Here all the printed materials. Here are stickers for departures. Here is a collector, where they specify the data from the participants. New people come every day: veterans, wife of the deceased, volunteer, istov, marketer. We do not have enough plates for all departments every day.

– Marie, we cannot send 15 plates to the library. They misunderstood the essence that one table was needed on one table.

We call – really, thought, the number of plates – is the number of dead in their village. We correct in registration for 1.

The office enters the “land”, takes the plates in person. On the day of memory, they will post a video where the memory table appears in the dining room on the PPD and in the location near the front line.

***

– Do they not print?

I am covered by panic, because in the typography the second time changed the date of readiness. Lastly – on August 26. I understand that we do not have time to send the materials to the registered participants to the Promotion, if we do not receive the order in time. The urgent order for urgency is transformed into a potential big problem and four days of delay. No one takes the phone in the typography – Sunday, and even Independence Day.

The next day, we will storm their managers, explain what the action and why we need urgently. We are assured that they have been asked to the management. Print is not ready, which means that hundreds of participants will not be able to make a memory table in their institutions. In our voice with Maria, for the first time in preparation, there is a fair indignation.

– I will go to production– says Maria. In place, he once again explains to employees why it is important for us to get materials here and now.

In the evening, she takes printing, in the morning volunteers are packing the departure again – and whole boxes refer them to the post office. They are no longer surprised by these volumes. More than 2000 shipments in a few days.

The stock map has now turned into a sunflower field.

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Memorial Day began with table serving – more than 3,000 of them were reserved in all regions of Ukraine, except for Russia -occupied territories, and in 16 countries. Even this year, more than 170 military units have joined this year.

My memory day begins with a moment of silence on the Maidan. I recorded my names here, in the sense of Khreshchatyk. At nine in the morning, the postcards were no longer empty.

– Instagram is already blocking the ability to add mention and a stove– says our social network editor. Mention also appears every minute: with love, the tables, names, portraits, and history are loved. We do not even have time to view all and thank all the participants.

On this day, I saw different tables with my own eyes:

Pilot memory table in the “winged” cafe, where everyone was cooked with his favorite drink;

table at the Crimean-Tatar restaurant, where, along with the sun-the boiler is a man of employee of the institution;

a table with portraits of colleagues in a confectionery, which was destroyed by a ballistic missile a day before;

table in veteran space;

table in a museum under a painting with the defender of Kiev – Archangel Michael;

The bookstore table, where they made a selection of war editions.

And also the table in our office, which we dedicated to Andriy Sokolovsky, Daddy of our communications Sasha, who all these days put in the action and went from the office last.

***

The memory table this year has become a great manifestation of our empathy of the loss. He showed how Ukrainians unite in memory and support each other. I proved that we can coexist with the memory of the fallen in public spaces, not to distinguish with them fences of cemeteries. We are able to honor and mention everyone with a name.

The scaling of the action, which in the first year had 100 establishments, in the second – already 800, and in the third – crossed the mark of 3000 tables, once again proves that it becomes our new national tradition of honoring and part of our new memory culture.

Guyane Avakyan, Co -founder of the memory platform memorial

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