While I didn't support his recent religious affiliations, he was a decent, kind, wise and selfless man. He helped my family when they arrived as new immigrants in the U.S., giving them shelter, helping them with paperwork, finding them jobs, driving them here and there.
Years later when my mother phoned him that she was heading to the hospital, scared because she was delivering a very premature baby, even my father couldn't make it through the snow storm, but, Otetz Oleksandr was there, bestowing God's blessing upon me, minutes after my birth. Three days later he baptized me.
While I haven't seen or spoken to him in years, he will always have a place in my heart.
May God please forgive him any wrongs. I am confident that his kindness to others, his offering shelter, feeding the hungry, offering solace to the lost, .... will outweigh any missteps. For "when I was hungry, you fed me; when I was thirsty, you gave me to drink, and when I was a stranger, you took me in..." All of these, and many more, he has done.
Lord, grant him peaceful rest.
