Seventy-six-year-old Vera Moroz, who lives in Portland, Ore., thinks that the best present in her life is a book where she’s one of the characters.

The children’s story “Bash and Lucy Fetch Team Vera and the Dream Beasts,” written by a friend of her daughter and co-authored by Vera’s 9-year-old surrogate grandson, was published in May 2018.

The book was preceded by many years of warm friendship during which strangers became like relatives.

How Vera became Grandma to Michael

Vera came to the US in 2005 to help her daughter, Tatiana Terdal, take care of her newborn son, Lukyan. Several years later, the second son, Levko, was born.

The family looked for friends for their kids and that’s how they got to know Lisa Cohn and her son, Michael, who lived nearby. Later, Lisa and Michael started to write children’s books together and the most recent book they dedicated to Vera.

The families often saw each other, visited each other often, and their children played together.

“We used to see Vera and Levko two or three times a week at a local community center,” recalls Lisa. “Vera always played with Michael whenever we saw each other.” Through the years, Michael often saw Vera at Tatiana’s home and Vera became his babysitter. “That helped them establish a relationship because they spent a lot of time one-on-one.”

At some point, Vera started calling Michael her grandson.

“At first,” says Lisa, “he said (when he was three or four) ‘but she is Levko’s grandma, and can’t be my grandma.’ But soon he started calling her his grandma. (He doesn’t have his own grandparents.).”

According to the boy’s mom, he is very attached to Vera and likes to visit her. Sometimes he brings friends and they always say, “I would like to have a grandma like Vera.”

“My grandchildren call me Babtsya. Another child hears that, so for him and for them I am Babtsya,” said Vera. “Michael started calling me Babtsya. Of course, you know how Ukrainian babtsyas are. They will hug you and kiss you and caress you and love you. Lisa is very busy and I have a lot of free time. Now Michael and Lisa for us are like our relatives.”

And Lisa also has very warm words to say about Vera.

“Vera and I are good friends. She told me a lot about her childhood and youth. She always gives us presents like food she cooks and vegetables she grows,” said Lisa.

Lisa and Michael started writing books together when Michael was five years old. Their dog Lucy died and it was their way of dealing with grief. Lucy became the main character in the books, where she always accompanies a boy, Bash, a character based on Michael. The book about Vera became the third book in the series.

“Michael and I work together to come up with a conflict for our books. He is very good at doing that,” said Lisa.

 

Vera is the embodiment of girl power

In the book, Vera is the coach of a successful girls’ soccer team and the assistant mayor. Here is how the authors describe her in the book:

“Her uniform was stitched in blue and gold Ukrainian colors, and she and her players wore Ukrainian-style flower arrangements in their hair. Vera and Paula’s team outsmarted, outran, outshouted, and overpowered every team in the town, the county and the state.”

In real life, Vera never was a professional coach but often played soccer with Michael, Lukyan, and Levko, and also spent time with Lucy, who liked to fetch the ball. This gave Michael the idea of making Lucy a soccer player.

It’s not an accident that Vera became a character in the book.

“Michael and I decided to focus on a topic of girl-power. I asked him who he would name as three people who have girl-power. Vera was the first one he named,” said Lisa.

Michael also came up with the idea to make her assistant mayor and came up with a lot of her lines. He knows her well and is very good at imitating the way she speaks, said Lisa.

“If you read the book you can recognize my speech,” said Vera. “When I make mistakes that’s how he put it in the book. ‘Mom, it has to be the way Babtsya says it.’

“I at once recognized myself as the character in the book and as soon as I started reading, told myself, ‘Oh, this is about me. Of course they added fictional details, but the character is very close to reality, especially the way I talk. Michael has a great memory and hearing; he is a very gifted child,” said Vera.

As a coach, Vera often gives lectures on the theme, “In My Country.” She reminds her team how easy their life is compared to her own childhood and tells them to value what they have.

“In my country, not enough money to buy pets fancy foods and get their hairs fixed in beauty place,” Vera says in the book. “Your pets very lucky. And you lucky to have them. You must love them.”

Vera’s life history

Vera grew up in Soviet-occupied Ukraine, writes Lisa Cohn in her blog. During the second world war, the Soviets took away her family’s house and her family had to move to the basement. They also took away the family’s land.

“We had a lot of land, but the Soviet Union took it,” shared Vera in an interview with Lisa Cohn.

When she was six, her mother worked in a hospital at night, keeping a wood-fired boiler going. Before she left for work, Vera’s mom would braid Vera’s hair while she was asleep and prepare her food for the morning.

“They would give us a ticket for one loaf of bread for one week. When I was very young, I went at night and stayed in the long line to get bread. We were always very hungry. We ate special grass that my mother planted,” she said.

A neighbor once stole her family’s goat and asked her mom to tell the police. She wanted the government to take her children away, to a school for orphans, so the kids would get food. The neighbor went to jail, and her children went to the government school.

In Ukraine, Vera experienced many hardships, including losing $10,000—all her savings—after the Soviet Union dissolved. She explained, “Most Ukrainians lost all their money. After the separation (dissolution of the Soviet Union), Russian bank did not give Ukrainians their money.”

A single working mother, she often knitted and sewed clothing in the bathroom at night so she wouldn’t wake her two children while they were sleeping. She sold the clothing to make extra money. She also worked an 8-hour job, getting up early to make food for her children.

In 2005, Vera moved to the US and also became grandma to Lukyan and Levko and also Michael.

Michael proposed dedicating the book to Vera and he and his mom together wrote the dedication.

“For Vera Moroz: You inspire us every day with your strength, goodness, smarts, and spirit. We love you!”

Vera values greatly her relationship with Lisa and Michael and this book made her very happy.

“This was something very big for me that these people paid attention to me, old woman. I have not had a bigger present in my life as the present from this boy and his mom.”

Watch Michael dedicate the book to Vera: