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Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/1464866
Notes from a friend As sometimes happens when one writes about a company for many years, lasting friendships develop. This was the case with BeLight’s onetime PR person, Helen N. She and your correspondent kept in touch these many years, even if it was simply a newsy annual holiday greeting and sharing our opinions about our favorite Charles Dickens novels. Since the start of the invasion, she has been in touch daily, first via email then through a secure chat app with short notes about her rapidly-changing life in Odessa. When the war began, her husband who is a crew member in the merchant marine was in port and at home. Her son, however, was on a brief vacation with his girlfriend in Turkey, where they had to exchange their room in a resort for a small apartment to accommodate their lengthening stay. Though many of her friends departed for safe havens to the west, Helen remained in Odessa to care for her aging parents who could not leave. Irena, her friend and one-time colleague from BeLight, reported that she successfully made it to Spain. As the days wore on, local supermarkets became more crowded and the shelves emptier. At one point, only the candy aisle was well stocked as more nutritious fare was sold out. Many markets simply ran out of food and closed. Though not covered in Western newscasts, Helen wrote about occasionally hearing distant explosions. As this is being written late in March, air raid sirens have become more frequent, but no less frightening. Residents have been instructed to black out their windows at night. One afternoon in early March, she saw a rainbow rise over the center of the city. At first, Helen sent photos of the nearly empty downtown streets. Later they were filled with iron tank barriers, photos of which were forbidden by the local defenders. Water was turned off for two days and then returned. A friend and her young daughter were also unable to leave Odessa and were in financial straits, as well. Helen shopped for groceries for them as well as some toys as a morale-builder for the young girl. In spite of the tank traps and intermittent water supply, the Odessa Zoo was able to reopen for a weekend, offering a bit of a break for the families and few children who remained in the city. An Inconclusive Conclusion It is a challenge for any writer to end a piece like this with no sense of closure, literary or logical. The war has gone on for over a month now. Some cities have been devastated, some, like Odessa have remained undamaged but under siege. It is impossible to even know how things will change before our readers will see this. In America, war is almost always a far-away thing. Other people. Other places. We’ll complain about the rise of gasoline and grocery prices, but continue to feel secure in our lives and our homes. But when war comes to lives that can be very much like our own, we are more apt to be touched by its tragedy and insanity, and understand a little better the courage of those both fighting and living under its influence, doing the best they can to protect each other and the ones they love. The Mac and Apple survived some challenging times if not existential threats over the years. What came out of those was a company far stronger and successful than anyone would have expected. Acknowledging the courage and spirit of its people, we here at MacDirectory hope and pray for the same outcome in Ukraine. Editor’s note: “Odesa” and “Odessa” are both accepted spellings of the city. We followed the forms used by our contributors and their companies. Image by Egor Lyfar, Unsplash