NEWS AND VIEWS: Remembering mom as a successful businesswoman and a caring mother (08/14/05)

NEWS AND VIEWS

Remembering mom as a successful businesswoman and a caring mother

by Nina Nechipurenko

What can I say of my mother? There are so many things that she has done for her family and communities both locally and abroad. There are so many ways she has touched others and invested herself into their lives in order to provide a better quality of life for us all.

Where should I begin?

Let's go back away to the time when her children were very little. She spent countless hours teaching us how to play the piano, how to make ceramic artifacts, how to make pysanky, how to embroider, how not to get frustrated and how to have fun. She always made it a priority to be involved in our youth activities, from Plast to dancing, and Ukrainian school - especially Ukrainian school!

She was not only our teacher at home, but in Ukrainian school also. She wanted to make sure that all the students learned the most that was possible. And all the students knew they could not get away with anything in class. She made sure we had plenty of homework and always knew when someone was passing notes or not paying attention in class. She was a teacher to be reckoned with!

I remember when she went back to school. Not only was she committed to seeing youths invest in education, she also invested herself. I remember going with her to the campus and waiting for her to take her exams, and then getting to have a fabulous lunch at the campus cafeteria.

She was always busy working on her projects in her basement office, which, by the way, she still has. There were so many projects - among them an introductory alphabet book for children, which she made sure we used, and which my son is currently learning from.

For years she worked on the credit union magazine, writing articles, laying out photos, designing pages. She then moved on to radio and television. For years she was a TV star!

I don't think she ever took a day off from finding something else to do, because when she wasn't working in her office, she was crocheting afghan after afghan. Her energy is tremendous! I am getting exhausted just thinking about it all.

But not only was she working on all these community projects, she was also quite a hostess. We always had parties at our home. She always made sure there was plenty of food and activities for everyone. Family and friends would come over to socialize. The adults would play cards and chat, while the kids ran around the house making lots of noise. And we always looked forward to the weekends! We loved her deviled eggs.

There was this one time that she and I made plans to go to New York City - just the two of us. She took a bus and met me at Albany. We took a train from Albany to Grand Central Station - what fun! Of course, everyone thought we were sisters out on a jaunt. To this day, everyone tells us how we looked like sisters. (It's nice to know that I will always look young.) While we were in NYC we went to Dangerfield's and saw Rodney Dangerfield live and in person. He decided he would heckle my mother, but little did he know that she would heckle him right back. She left the poor man speechless.

As time passed, she had the chore of planning two large weddings three months apart from each other. The weddings turned out spectacularly. She managed it all and never lost a step.

She now has three wonderful grandchildren who always look forward to seeing their "baba." She makes sure they are well fed, entertained and educated in as much Ukrainian heritage as possible. She plays computer games, and card games and loves to go to the SeaBreeze amusement waterpark with them all. She has maintained a youthful outlook on life that will always be cherished and remembered by her grandchildren.

While she was doing all of these other things, she also found time to be the CEO of the Ukrainian Federal Credit Union, a Rotary member, a board member of multiple organizations and countless committees. She manages to travel to Europe and all across the United States. She even found time to open her home to multiple exchange students and soccer players when she was at home.

I can only hope that I achieve half of what my mother had accomplished in her early years of life. And yet, I believe we all know that there is still a great deal more to come from her.

Nina Nechipurenko is the daughter of Tamara Denysenko, CEO of the Ukrainian Federal Credit Union. Though it is headquartered in Rochester, N.Y., the UFCU is active from coast to coast with five branches throughout the country that are continually growing in terms of members and assets. Ms. Denysenko is active also in promoting the credit union movement in Ukraine.

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