A Ukrainian widow remembers her husband — the polymath who climbed Kilimanjaro in a day and fed baby dormice between combat missions
From: Euromaiden Press BY TETIANA REDKO
In Ukraine, you should always be gentle with a sad woman. You never know what’s in her heart. It is mainly men who die; women are left to carry the grief, silently, invisibly, while life demands they keep moving.
But Tetiana, a recently-widowed young woman with a one-year-old baby, refuses to mourn. “Mourning would be about me,” she says. “I want this to be about his life.
These are her memories — so her daughter knows whose child she is.
Serhii Matiiasevych was born in Kyiv in 1989 into an interesting family. His father was a well-known roboticist who lectured in South Korea during Soviet times. His mother was an artist. His grandmother was a chemistry professor.
In school, he won many city olympiads and some national ones. Teachers would say, “Serhii, stop tiring us with your knowledge.” But he wasn’t one-dimensionally smart. He was passionate about mountaineering, skiing, and academic rowing. He drew so beautifully that his works were always taken for city exhibitions. At fourteen, he wrote a book. Dedicated it to his grandmother. Published it. Talisman of the Warrior.
The first breaking point was his father’s death when Serhii was fifteen. It affected him so deeply that he decided to become a geneticist. He had an idea that he could resurrect his father. That’s why he chose biology.
Kilimanjaro in one day
At twenty-six, he went to Africa alone with a backpack. He dreamed of climbing Kilimanjaro in one day—considered nearly impossible. He did it. That’s where his callsign came from: Africa.
He understood physics and foundational sciences deeply. Not superficially — meticulously.
He knew Ukrainian history perfectly. Serhii designed games and sewed climbing shoes for rock climbers. As an experienced hiker, he patented a special quick-release buckle. That’s who he was: thorough, deep, never superficial.
Voice of Ukraine 